Welcome to Car-Friendly Downtown Langley: Where pedestrians are an afterthought

Last year the City of Langley revealed a proposed design for McBurney Lane and I was excited to see that the City was embracing walkability by creating a great people-friendly space that would tie the one-way section of Fraser Highway into Douglas Park.

The current McBurnay Lane has a square in its North and an ugly parking lot its South. The parking lot breaks up the public space, separates Fraser Highway from Douglas Park, and creates a hostile pedestrian environment.

McBurney Lane Today

With this in mind, I was happy to see McBurney Lane become an extension of Douglas Park. At the same time the City planned to maintain the same number of parking spots in the area by converting Douglas Crescent from parallel parking to angle parking.

Original Proposal for McBurney Lane

The merchants didn’t see the benefit of creating great public space as originally planned and insisted that the parking lot remain in McBurney Lane. They got their wish. The new plan for McBurney Lane is disappointing and and shows that Downtown Langley is going down the wrong path.

New Proposal for McBurney Lane

The merchants in Downtown Langley are still under the impression that they are competing with the Langley Bypass and Willowbrook Mall for regional shopper in cars. Sadly, they haven’t realized that this war is already over and Downtown Langley has lost.

The reality is that Downtown Langley needs to differentiate itself from all the strip malls that surround it and embrace the fact that it is a local shopping area in one of the highest density areas of the region. Over 50% of the population of the City is within a 10 minute walk of Downtown; many of them seniors without cars. Downtown Langley should create a pedestrian and cyclist-friendly space to draw people from the local area and create a safe space for seniors. If Downtown Langley embraced walkability not only would it attract more people from the local area, but it would create a regional destination where people would go to just to walk around. There are many examples of this including White Rock, Fort Langley, and Steveston. Many strip malls are even trying to create "Main Streets" like Grandview Corners in South Surrey. Parking lots have been proven to actively discourage pedestrian trips. The tragedy is that Downtown Langley’s obsession with more parking will be its demise.

Downtown Langley’s parking policies don't actually benefit customers. Based on the recommendations of the merchants, there is 3 hour and 2 hour free parking Downtown. This includes the one-way section of Fraser Highway. These spots usually serve as parking for employees, business owners, and non-customers. Even after saying that, it is a rare day when all the parking spaces are full in Downtown Langley. A rational parking policy would see the creation some free on-street 30 minute, high-turnover parking spots in key area where finding parking is a preceived issue. It would also see creation of 2 hour paid on-street parking in other sections of Downtown Langley. Paid long-term parking would be available in the many off-street parking lots and the Downtown merchants would provide validated (free) parking for customers that choose to use the long-term lots. This does three things: makes non-customers pay for precious parking spaces, encourages higher turnover of on-street parking, and provides a perceived value for shopping in Downtown Langley. These policies would allow the City to build a pedestrian-friendly, successful Downtown. Today there are many empty storefronts in Downtown Langley, so clearly the parking extravaganza that is Downtown Langley isn’t working.

I don’t think that the merchants will see the value in creating a pedestrian-friendly Downtown or a rational parking policy, and I don't think Council will either. I still remember a conversation around Douglas Park where one of the councillors wanted to turn half the park into a parking lot.

What Mayor and Council makes in Township of Langley

Last week I posted about how elected officials in the City of Langley are not riding the gravy train. This week the Township of Langley released its 2011 financial remuneration report. It appears that mayor and council in the Township are not on that train either. One of the things that has been getting to me lately is how people really undervalue the work that councils and municipal staff do. They believe that everyone should be making minimum wage. If you want a well run municipality with bright people in charge, you'll need to provide a fair compensation package. Otherwise those bright people will just stay in the private sector. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for.

What they made in 2011...
Froese, Jack (Mayor) $6,804
Green, Rick (Mayor) $98,244

Bateman, Jordan (Councillor) $23,993
Davis, David (Councillor) $2,475
Dornan, Bev (Councillor) $42,057
Ferguson, Steve (Councillor) $43,071
Fox, Charlie (Councillor) $39,496
Kositsky, Melvin (Councillor) $43,190
Long, Bob (Councillor) $49,250
Richter, Kim (Councillor) $45,154
Sparrow, Michelle (Councillor) $3,310
Ward, Grant (Councillor) $47,271

Total: $443,955 or 0.2% of all 2011 operating expenses

Heritage Restoration in the Township

The Township of Langley has a heritage system that is meant to protect and preserve historical buildings and sites. One such site in Murrayville was the topic on Council’s agenda last night. The Roderick Cummings House was built before 1915 and has been subject to substantial alterations and damage over the years. The Township of Langley is looking to enter into a Heritage Revitalization Agreement to restore the facade back how it originally looked when first constructed. As a part of the agreement, the Township will reduce Development Cost Charges and Building Permit Fees by 34% for the heritage part of the development.

Archival photos of the Roderick Cummings residence from Langley Centennial Museum

Rendering of proposed restored residents

The proposed use of the building will be for a doctor’s office and will also include an addition to the original residents that is almost double the size of the original building. Much like the City of Vancouver, Langley’s heritage preservation bylaws seem more concerned with facades than anything else. While this isn’t a bad thing, it lends itself heritage building in Downtown Vancouver with glass towers sticking out of them or in Langley, heritage buildings with a huge addition on their backsides. While I don’t oppose this heritage restoration plan and personally like the blending of the old and new, I have to wonder if the context and character of the historic building is lost. The challenge of course is to ensure we can protect the heritage of our communities while not turning them into museums.

Township of Langley – Ultimate Cycling Network

At tonight’s Township of Langley Council Meeting, staff will be submitting a report on the progress of the Township’s Ultimate Cycling Network. As a member of the Greater Langley Cycling Coalition, I’ve been following this process for a few years and I’m pleased to see that this network represents the wishes of the cycling community in Langley. One of the major additions to this plan is the inclusion of Zero Avenue and 248 Street as these routes are heavily used by sports/recreational cyclist. One of the challenging areas for cycling in the Township is Walnut Grove as 96th Avenue will be the only road with bike lanes. 88th Avenue has a wide-curb lane designation, but the high-speed of traffic will likely discourage cycling on that route.

All totalled, the plan is set to cost 70 million 2012 dollars and doesn’t include the cost of land acquisition and utility work. While I’m truly proud of the work the Township has done on cycling planning, the major issue is the lack of funding to make this plan a reality. With the current funding level for cycling, I will be dead before this plan is complete. Many would cite the “lack” of cycling as a reason for not putting a priority on cycling in the Township, even while the rural areas of the Township are a major destination of recreational cyclist. The major challenge is that in urban areas, the cycling network is disconnected. Until there are well marked and continuous routes, cycling will not increase dramatically in urban Langley. If the Township invested $1m a years in cycling, it would be able to get matching funds from TransLink and the Province which would certainly get this plan on the ground. It would also be interesting to see if this could be bundled in with horse community funding to provide both horse and cyclist friendly routes. I know that all things cost money and results in taxes; it was interesting to note that 68% of people at the open house support paying more taxes to improve cycling in the Township.

The Township of Langley will now be working on developing a 2012 cycling map to show existing cycling routes that are signed and marked, and then work on a 5-year plan for implement parts of the ultimate cycling plan.

You can follow the link to the Township's Afternoon Agenda Package, cycling maps start on page 114.