Inside Langford

There has been a recently flurry of reporting about a proposed sakk (the plural of which is “sukuk”, which all the Canadian media thus far has erroneously used) for Bear Mountain, and I have received several queries about it. A sakk is a form of Islamic bond, created to address the Islamic prohibition of charging interest on currency, or on selling debt commitments. Why would anyone invest in a bond that pays no interest and cannot be sold prior to maturity? An investor willing to buy and hold the sakk for the duration expects to receive more principle back than they put in, an arrangement that is considered by many a loophole around the spirit of the Islamic prohibition on charging interest. Sakks are backed up by tangible assets, and the intention with this one is that it be backed up by the assets of Bear Mountain Resort.

Several sources are now reporting Read the rest of this entry »

A reminder that Langford City Hall is closed today for the Canada Day holiday, and that the following day (Thursday July 2nd) is the deadline for paying property taxes. Those who have not yet paid their property taxes can save themselves time by applying for the Provincial Homeowner’s Grant online ahead of time.

A job posting has been posted for a “Marketing Coordinator for the City of Langford. The posting does not suggest what the position may pay, but it does indicate that all “applications will be accepted, in confidence.” This follows another recent marketing decision by Langford Council, to authorise the spending of $12,453 to purchase an advertisement (designed to look like an article) for Westshore Magazine. Here is the full text of the job posting:

Read the rest of this entry »

New solar-powered trash compactors have been installed along Goldstream Ave. They are being installed in sets of two, with one to collects cans and another to compact trash into a smaller format so that they don’t need to be picked up as often, which theoretically reduces emissions due to fewer trucks running around collecting garbage. I have noted two installations of these so far, a set of near the Goudy library and a set near City Hall.

I had the interesting experince of Read the rest of this entry »

Since Langford’s current affordable housing programme began in 2003, thirty-five 3-bedroom single family dwellings have been built. Local developer Les Bjola in a 2008 radio CFAX interview indicated that in the future single family dwellings would make up less and less of new developments, and I explored this to its inevitable conclusion in a post that looked at the future of the affordable housing programme.

The future is now, as we have the first Read the rest of this entry »

Langford Council’s past Monday night meeting was all about a variety of developments on Walfred Road. If you blinked, you could have missed Langford Council quietly adopting Bylaw 1209, a highly controversial bylaw that allows for a comprehensive development on South Skirt Mt. The item was moved to the first order of business for Council, prior to Public Participation. However, if the intent was to deal with the previously contentious bylaw early in the meeting, that effort was foiled as there were two Public Hearings on two different developments on Walfred Road that garnered many a speaker, who raised numerous concerns about the specific developments as well as a litany of concerns about development on Walfred Road in the South Langford area.

Look for Inside Langford to post a summary of the Walfred public hearings in the near future.

The second Saturday of every month is a recycling depot at Belmont Senior Secondary that takes soft and hard plastics, electronics, styrofoam, and several other things not otherwise recycable. It is on again tomorrow from 10 am to 1 pm, and more specific details on it can be found in this article.

Langford’s Agricultural Advisory Committee (AAC) is meeting again to reconsider two properties. Both had previously been looked at and the AAC had failed to come to agreement on whether there was a benefit to agriculture in removing them from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). For the properties to be reconsidered, presumably a new argument will be presented on how removing them will create a net benefit to agriculture.

Read the rest of this entry »

The City of Langford has just been announced as a winner of one of the 2009 Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) awards. The award Langford has won is for “Affordable Housing, Parks and Amenities Contribution Policy”.

From the FCM’s press release:

Read the rest of this entry »

Notes have been posted at intermittent intervals along the E&N Rail line that they have begun conducting their annual herbicide spraying. It is scheduled to continue until the end of June, and people are advised to take this into consideration, particularly if walking children or animals along the train tracks.