Inside Langford

Royal Roads University professor, Dr Richard Kool, was the keynote speaker at the Go Local Food Summit on the West Shore this past Saturday, March 6th, addressing the economics of creating an economy based on the “Go Local’ philosophy with his keynote address, “Grow ahead of the curve.” He expanded on the idea of “Going Local” applying to food sources and elaborated on applying it to everywhere you shop, everything you buy, where you bank and how far you, your money and your purchase travels and how. Read the rest of this entry »

TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 5:30 p.m.

Excerpts from Reports to committee:

a) Approving Officer’s 2009 Annual Report

In 2009, applications for developments north of the highway are continued to be on hold until such time that the Spencer Road Interchange is complete and operational. For 2010, we can anticipate continued development in all lands south of the Trans Canada Highway as the Storm Drainage plan for Walfred Road, and Happy Valley have now been completed and discussed with the development community. Walfred Road area and the Happy Valley/Luxton corridor continue to be the areas of significant activity. The north side of the Trans Canada Highway continues to experience minor development Read the rest of this entry »

REGULAR MEETING OF COUNCIL
Monday, March 1st, 2010 @ 7:00 p.m.

Read the rest of this entry »

From CityOfLangford.ca:

Public Open House on Langford’s Community Energy and Emissions Reduction Strategy

Please join us on the evening of Wednesday, February 24th between 4pm and 8pm at Langford Council Chambers to provide important citizen input on the CEERS project.

CEERS will achieve significant community-wide reductions in the use of energy and water, as well as reductions in greenhouse gas emissions within the City. CEERS will build upon Langford’s award-winning Official Community Plan (OCP), and help Langford to meet BC Climate Action Charter and provincial Green Community statute requirements.

What: CEERS Public Open House
When: Between 4pm and 8pm on Wednesday, Feb 24, 2010
Where: City of Langford Council Chambers, 3rd Floor, 877 Goldstream Avenue.
Please contact the Planning Department at 250.474.6919 or lblackwood@cityoflangford.ca for further information about the public open house.

PLANNING, ZONING AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMMITTEE
Monday, February 22nd, 2010, 7:00 pm

The Planning, Zoning & Affordable Housing Committee will be considering two reports:

a) Application for a Development Variance Permit to vary the Sign Bylaw N°. 1250 to allow for one Wall Sign at the subject property at 895 Langford Parkway (Colocating of Andrew Sheret and Six Mile Furniture Businesses).

b) Application to Amend the Zoning Designation of the Properties at 2741, 2749, 2751, 2753, 2757 and 2761 Spencer Road from R2 (One- and Two- Family Residential) to MU1A (Mixed Use Residential Commercial A) and 996 Preston Way from CT1 (Tourist Commercial 1) to MU1A (Mixed Use Residential Commercial A); to Vary the maximum height of a Principle Building from the Required four-storeys to five-storeys to Allow for the Construction of Two (2), Five-Storey Mixed Use Buildings consisting of approximately 63 Affordable Housing and 1,060 m2 (11,410 ft2) of ground floor commercial space.

The agenda is up for tomorrow’s Langford Council Meeting. All four parts of a relatively long agenda are now available in the Inside Langford Files area.

10-02-15 Council Meeting agenda part1of4
10-02-15 Council Meeting agenda part2of4
10-02-15 Council Meeting agenda part3of4
10-02-15 Council Meeting agenda part4of4

Highights include:

- a public hearing on “BYLAW NO. 1194, Langford Zoning Bylaw, Amendment No. 245, (2732 Matson Road), 2008″.

- a Citizen Award of Merit presented by Councillor Blackwell (Chair of Protective Services)

- Olympic Dream Give Away, Tickets for Two – Ladies Slalom Alpine Skiing (File No. 8100-01)

- a report on a “Permit Request for Organized Motorcycle Ride for Dad”

- a report on an “Application to Rezone 3365 Happy Valley Road from AG1 (Agricultural 1) Zone to RM7A (Medium-Density Apartment A)”

- a report on an “Application to rezone 936 Flatman Avenue (McCormick Meadows) from AG1 (Agriculture 1) to a new Comprehensive Development zone to allow for the development of approximately 501 residential units.”

- and correspondence from the JDF Cycle Coalition on several proposals to allow larger numbers of bicycles to be accomodated on BC Transit buses that they hope Langford Council will support.

I don’t have time for a big post on this today, but here are two links to yesterday’s big HST news, and two links to how you can get involved.

Vander Zalm-led petition to drive out HST gets green light

Elections BC page on Citizen’s Initiative (with interesting details such as the fact that Vander Zalm has chosen to act as his own financial agent despite 1400 volunteers and growing, and the fact that the initiative has a $5K spending limit).

Vander Zalm’s Fight HST web site

Anti-HST Facebook group

I discovered this site recently, and it’s a collection of news stories about the Westshore RCMP. It seems like they’re updating their Newsroom quite frequently, and they have several other resources there as well.

Tonight’s council meeting is slated to have a public hearing on another Happy Valley rezoning, will look at a development variance permit application on Jeanine, and will read into the record several interesting things discussed at recent City of Langford committees such as:

- “Walfred and Happy Valley Road Conceptual Plans” from the Transportation & Public Works Committee

- an application to rezone 936 Flatman Avenue (McCormick Meadows) from AG1 (Agriculture 1) to a new Comprehensive Development zone to allow for the development of approximately 501 residential units from the Planning, Zoning & Affordable Housing Committee

- Protective Services Committee’s look at an “Amendment to the Ticket Information Authorization Bylaw… to enable more effective use of the ticketing system for graffiti vandalism, air-gun discharges and obstruction of City employees”

There’s also a Music in the Park proposal from Peter Willing Premier Entertainment, and several other issues besides. The agenda is long enough that City staff broke it into four parts, all of them now available on the Inside Langford “Files” area at the bottom of the left sidebar:

10-02-01 Council Meeting agenda part1

10-02-01 Council Meeting agenda part2

10-02-01 Council Meeting agenda part3

10-02-01 Council Meeting agenda part4

There’s a proposal for a 501 unit development in South Langford at tomorrow’s Planning, Zoning, and Affordable Housing Committee meeting (click here to read the PZ&AH agenda, including the staff report). There are some interesting details of the proposal that jumped out at me on a first reading of the 27-page agenda document:

- While labeled by the staff report as 501 units, 102 of the units are 2-3 storey homes that the report notes would be allowed to have secondary suites or carriage houses added (bringing the total number of units possibly as high as 603 units over time).

- The staff report notes that “The apartment buildings will be three, four and six storeys in height, set back into the sloping terrain, and contain 338 units in total between five buildings.” The use of the term “apartment buildings” is interesting, but does not elaborate if these are condominiums or are rental apartment buildings.

- The proponent’s plans incorporate Read the rest of this entry »