Between the city and the township, Langley is made up of seven distinct communities nestled between farmland set aside as part of the Agricultural Land Reserve. How are they growing and what opportunities lie ahead? Mayors Peter Fassbender and Jack Froese offered their insights.
What makes Langley a great place to live?
Both mayors are enthusiastic about Langley's central location, range of housing options, and great parks.
Mayor Fassbender: "We have a lot to offer in terms of diversity both from the point of view of housing stock and the diversity of that from single-family to multi-family residential. We've got great parks and trails and bicycle networks that people can use and then we have good opportunities for employment here as well."
He wasn't getting any arguments from Mayor Froese, who said, "We've got a great location; we're close to border crossings, close to airports. We have 75 per cent of our land under the Agricultural Land Reserve, so lots of green space. You can live in the middle of our highest density neighbourhoods and step outside and in five minutes you're in the countryside. We've got parks, wineries, farm markets, trails, and I think that really makes our municipality, I like to think of, as the envy, because we just have so many parks here."
A growing community
Metro Vancouver is growing and, with limited land resources, the pressure is on throughout the region to densify. In the township's six communities (Aldergrove; Murrayville; Brookswood; Walnut Grove; Willoughby; and Fort Langley), Froese anticipates most of the growth to occur in Willoughby, after which we will start to see Brookswood develop more.
"Willoughby is going to see significant expansion over the next couple of years," he said. "We've got a lot of land that's undeveloped and the homebuilders are active in there and are constantly putting up new homes. We're going through our official community plan update and that is going to change Brookswood into some more density. But we're still in the process of getting public input and how that will actually look in the future, time will tell."
"Our growth in the city of Langley is going to be measured at about two per cent a year," commented Fassbender, "but around the city of Surrey, township of Langley, Abbotsford, their growth patterns are much more dramatic. That has a positive effect on us from an economic point of view because we have a lot of retail in our community. The growth that goes on around us will be beneficial to our businesses and to our whole community."
The city has changed its density bylaw, doubling density in the downtown core and maintaining graduated lower densities as we move south so there is a good mix of high, medium, and low density. The township is concentrating its increases in density to transit corridors and is looking at the land adjacent to the new Carvolth Park & Ride as a place that could be developed so the people who move in could step out their doors and hop on a bus rather than taking their cars everywhere.
The transportation challenge
With growth come challenges. Both Froese and Fassbender point to the congestion many residents live with on a daily basis as a priority issue for their councils.
"Transportation continues to be a major challenge for us in ensuring that we not only catch up in terms of what we need today, but that we plan effectively for the future," said Fassbender. "We've been working with TransLink and looking at the future of the transportation corridors in our community and how they connect to the communities around us. We're looking at what the modality options are for us, everything from SkyTrain to at-grade rail to more integrated bus services. So we're strongly advocating for that and will continue to."
Added Froese, "We don't have the luxury of transit some of the other municipalities have. The Carvolth Park & Ride is really helping get people in and out of our community, but we need to have transportation within the community so people can have options and get them out of the cars and onto transit."
Getting down to business
The township's economic development advisory committee and two economic development officers connect with existing businesses and promote the township with a view to attracting new business, while the city is working to develop strategies with its downtown business improvement association identifying opportunities and how to capitalize on them.
Froese spoke about the mobile business licence pilot project for specified trades both the township and the city are participating in. "If you're an electrician and you're based in Langley, you can buy one business licence and do work in Surrey or Chilliwack or Abbotsford without having to pick up a business licence in each municipality. That's one way we can help businesses cut red tape, be more efficient and do their jobs easier."
Community engagement
Involving citizens in building our communities is important to both mayors.
"We have lots of great volunteers," said Fassbender. "We work with all of the various agencies in our community. We have a group called the Langley Healthier Community Partnership that we initiated along with our neighbours, where we sit down and talk about the needs and the aspirations of our communities. So we are a catalyst, I think, to helping a lot of that discussion and we work closely with our volunteer groups to make sure we keep our eye on the big picture. And we also work hard to make our community feel safe and engaging and where people want to come.
We're trying very hard to maintain our personality that we've developed over the years." Froese talked about the community building that has gone into plans for the proposed new rec centre in Aldergrove. "One of the things that we did was strike a committee whose sole purpose was to reach out to the community and hold workshops and get information. That committee recently finished its mandate and provided us with a report," said the mayor. "The progress we've made on the recreation centre is one of my proudest accomplishments as mayor. It's a project that will take about three years, if everything goes well, and it will certainly help to revitalize downtown Aldergrove."
"Our growth in the city of Langley is going to be measured at about two per cent a year," commented Fassbender, "but around the city of Surrey, township of Langley, Abbotsford, their growth patterns are much more dramatic. That has a positive effect on us from an economic point of view because we have a lot of retail in our community. The growth that goes on around us will be beneficial to our businesses and to our whole community."
