A recap of the recent Planning and Zoning Committee’s look at the proposed new Parking Bylaw is up on LangfordCoalition.ca. Among the highlights:

- shared parking in a mixed-use development, where it can be parking for the businesses during the day and visitor parking for residents late at night, with signage to indicate what the purpose of the parking spot is depending on the day and time;

- the fact that the OCP and zoning bylaws conflict on parking regulations at points;

- that while Langford has a reputation as a “truck community,” that modern Langford will look quite different than this as high gas prices force people to change their perspectives on transportation;

- parking spots may not need to be as big in the future as people may continue to purchase smaller and smaller cars for more fuel efficiency;

- the committee recommended that the City Planner have the power to vary any parking rules by up to 10% for a proposed development;

- that if a parking variance is over 10% that the City collect money for any parking stalls not built.

Click here to read the whole article.

- Steven Hurdle -

Monday night’s regular Council Meeting has been canceled. No reason for the cancelation was specified. Council has had no shortage of business to attend to lately, as 448 page and 967 page agendas attest to, so one possible reason would be an expected lack of quorum. At the last Council meeting quorum was only barely achieved (with the mayor and 2 councilors absent), which would also suggest this is the likely reason.

The next scheduled Council meeting is June 16th, 7PM, 3rd floor at Langford City Hall.

- Steven Hurdle -

This Sunday, from 9-2 at Fire Hall #1, there will be an open house at Fire Hall #1 for both the Langford Fire Department and for Langford’s Emergency Social Services (ESS) volunteer programme. I’ll be volunteering at the ESS table for some of the day Sunday, so please say hello if you drop by.

If you have a community event that you’d like mentioned on Inside Langford, please email me.

- Steven Hurdle -

I read with interest that our city intends to open a new family fun park by Canada Day. This project has evolved out of the old PlayZone facility in View Royal. Langford purchased it (when it closed down due to rising insurance costs) for $50,000 about five years ago, before finding out (it is my understanding) that it wouldn’t fit in the building they had in mind for it for. They have traded it in on new play equipment, for a trade-in price City Hall has not yet disclosed to the best of my knowledge.

I support having facilities like this, our growing community needs them. Langford is also the only municipality in all of Greater Victoria where the average age is going down year-over-year, a reflection of the young families choosing to locate here. I remain concerned that we’re spending millions of dollars making new facilities, while existing facilities are closing at All-Fun Rec such as the waterslides and the driving range. Working with the private enterprise that owns All-Fun would almost certainly be cheaper than building new facilities to replace what we’re losing. Or, if we wanted, we could go for broke and work both to retain what we have and enhance it with new facilities.

- Steven Hurdle -

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New Langford fun park aims at families

Playzone facility set for completion by Canada Day Read the rest of this entry »

I have noticed that ever since blasting began at the interchange site that the electronic message sign on the Thetis side of the highway seems to be devoted to the message about the M-F, 9am-2pm, 20 min. delay, blasting schedule from April to September.

It occurs to me that this might not be the best use of those signs. In the past the Highway message signs have noted possible problems that might befall people traveling on the highway, such as delays on the Malahat, reminding people to watch for bicycles and motorcycles, fire risks, or weather issues like a few weeks ago (Apr. 27th) when it was quite foggy. While the blasting schedule is not irrelevent, it now seems constant and it is not like people have a lot of other options in how they get up-island. I certainly hope the electronic message highway signs will not be all-interchange-construction, all-the-time between now and the end of September, or possibly into November and beyond. (When was the last time a construction project this big was able to proceed totally on schedule?)

- Cheryl McLachlan -

There have been some questions on the proposed new sign bylaw that would, among other changes, allow electronic signs. We don’t have access to all the information on it, because of an unusual problem.

What information we do have is the staff report to the Planning and Zoning committee, which summarises some of the changes. It is copied below.

On another note, changes to parking regulations have been proposed and are coming up before tonight’s Planning and Zoning committee meeting. Inside Langford will report back with the proposed changes in the near future.

- Steven Hurdle -

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Staff Report to
Planning and Zoning Standing Committee
Date: April 14, 2008
File: 0340.50/6950
Subject: Application to Replace Sign Bylaw No. 700 with Sign Bylaw No. 1250 Read the rest of this entry »

For the second Council Meeting in a row, City Hall staff broke the agenda down into multiple parts on Langford’s website for this past Tuesday night’s meeting. This is a good move to help those with slower internet connections, and thanks to City Hall staff for the solution. I would strongly encourage City Hall staff to continue the practice (especially given that the size of agendas recently have sometimes become a lot larger).

This is a good way to alleviate the problem, but it doesn’t solve the problem of such large agendas which make it nearly impossible for people with busy lives to get involved in civic government. Having 448 page, not to mention 967 page, agendas is intimidating to even the most interested people, let alone the casual observer.

If Langford Council has this much on their plate, perhaps either slowing down so that less is crammed into any given meeting, or having more than two Council meetings a month (less over the summer months) is a solution that’s worth looking at.

- Steven Hurdle -

Everything said in the Gazette article is correct, and part of what happened at the meeting Tuesday night. What stands out for me is what isn’t mentioned, most specifically details like the fact that it was standing room only, that not everyone even fit in the room, and the fact that some in the room felt that the rules were enforced un-evenly. That’s an important context that’s missing from the article.

- Steven Hurdle -

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Langford OCP praised, vilified
By Edward Hill – Goldstream News Gazette – May 23, 2008

Mixed reception at hearing for Langford’s guiding land-use document

Langford’s draft official community plan found mixed support Tuesday as residents lauded it as elegant in concept, but falling short on protecting old neighbourhoods and local ecosystems.

Although a number of residents complained there was not enough time to review the hundreds of pages of the draft OCP, virtually all praised its ideals of Read the rest of this entry »

Mr Hurdle did an excellent commentary on the as yet to be finalised new Langford OCP.
What I experienced, since I was at the back of the room, had a somewhat different dimension from what he presents.
During the initial part of the Public Hearing, it was difficult if not impossible to to hear the Chair, or the speakers.
There were many and numerous complaints from the gathering about not being able to participate as they were unable to hear the proceedings. It was with delicious irony that the chair suggested that people move to front of the room if they wished to hear.
This despite the fact that the room was packed beyond capacity, with standing room only inside the council chamber, and a crowd standing outside in the hallway.

Somehow the chair missed that there was no place for anybody to move to. So much for councils “attention to detail“. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently local developer Jim Hartshorne set off an interesting debate with a letter to the editor. Here is the next letter in that discussion.

- Steven Hurdle -

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letter to the editor
Goldstream Gazette
May 21, 2008

In Jim Hartshorne’s letter (May 14) he states that it is “incorrect” to claim that the main thrust of the OCP is to allow mix-use development in all parts of Langford.
However, the actual OCP document itself states in Objective 5.2 “Encourage the growth of business activities in all parts of the community as a mixed-use urban design objective.”
In fact, at the OCP Open House Read the rest of this entry »