Ryder Hesjedal, a Langford cyclist who recently completed his first Tour de France, will speak at a 6PM rally tomorrow against the closure of the Juan de Fuca Velodrome. The rally starts at 6PM at the velodrome, and Ryder will be speaking at 6:30PM.

Recently the chorus in favour of not closing the facility has been increasing, both from cyclists and non-cyclists alike. Cyclists have expressed concern about losing a facility that is unique on the island, and one of the few in western North America. Non-cyclists have raised the issue of it being a 1994 Commonwealth Games legacy facility. Some turf users have expressed the concern that the turf infield of the velodrome is the least expensive to rent for soccer and other grass sports, and that replacing it with a stadium facility will hurt amateur sports.

For their part, West Shore Parks and Rec maintain that the facility Read the rest of this entry »

Local resident Axel Brock-Miller spoke at the recent Langford Council meeting on an issue he’s very passionate about. There was another issue he brought up that meeting.

Noting that allowing people to clap in support of something would inevitably lead to the equal, and opposite, reaction of people booing or otherwise discouraging speakers on the opposite side of the issue, he encouraged the Chair (generally Mayor Young or Deputy Mayor Blackwell) to not allow such displays in council chambers in the future. “Decorum would be better served if the chair controlled both sides,” Mr. Brock-Miller argued. He encouraged City Hall to Read the rest of this entry »

I had to look up where 2899 Kettle Lake Dr. was when I first saw it show up on the Planning and Zoning committee agenda. To my surprise, it didn’t come up in Google Maps, and the information attached to the agenda suggested it was to the east of Langford Lake. A bit more searching revealed that it was the proposed development in Goldstream Meadows, and it was to the west of Langford Lake.

The proposal has some interesting elements. Read the rest of this entry »

There are two proposals up for discussion at tonight’s meeting at City Hall:

- a sizeable modular home park planned for Goldstream Meadows, and
- a second post-OCP mixed-use building for Goldstream Ave with 62 residential units and 888 square metres (9558 square feet) of commercial space, proposed for the old PayLess Gas location at 662 Goldstream Ave.

Also of note is Read the rest of this entry »

At it’s last Council meeting, Langford Council held a public hearing on Bylaw 1170, which sets out new subdivision lot requirements for the Langford Lakes. Unlike a more controversial recent public hearing, everyone who attended was able to fit in the room for this one. One resident had an interesting suggestion about the proposal.

The new rules propose to not let any lakefront lot be subdivided into a chunk that’s less than 1500 square metres (16,146 sq.ft), with one exception: Read the rest of this entry »

The Langford Coalition yesterday began a series of daily summaries of Langford news from local news outlets. The first one summarises the day’s news from the Goldstream News Gazette, this website (Inside Langford), and the Times Colonist. The news outlets are listed in alphabetical order to ensure there is no favouritism. Check out the first summary, and check the Langford Coalition site regularly for future summaries.

– Steven Hurdle -

At its Monday night meeting, Langford Council accepted the recommendation of its transportation committee and began the process of reducing the speed of Atkins Ave from 50KM/h to 30KM/h for the entire length of the Langford portion of Atkins. The View Royal section of Atkins had been reduced to 30KM/h some time ago, so this harmonises the two sections.

The Staff Report to Council noted Read the rest of this entry »

Until further notice, no campfires or open burning are allowed within Langford until further notice. The Langford Fire Department is rating the current fire risk as “Extreme”, and may stay that way for the next while because (as of midnight Wednesday) the Westshore 14-day weather forecast suggests we’ll have little, if any, rain over the next two weeks (and daytime highs between 18 and 28 degrees).

– Steven Hurdle -

On Monday night’s Council meeting agenda, a new Bylaw was read through first, second, and third reading. Bylaw 1171, entitled the “Spencer Interchange Local Area Service Temporary Borrowing Bylaw,” establishes that “The City of Langford is hereby authorized and empowered to borrow upon the credit of the City of Langford, a sum not exceeding nine million seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($9,750, 000.00)[sic].”

It is odd that the bylaw has no information at all about the reasons for Read the rest of this entry »

During Monday night’s Council meeting, the issue of the proposed Peatt/Station/Phipps intersection/transit exchange came up. The four construction bids received included one important difference: whether they would close the roads during construction or not. While no decision has yet been made by Langford Council, if was stated at the meeting that if there’s to be a road closure it would be for a four-month period (August to November, inclusive, was mentioned during the meeting but the start period might now be pushed back).

Mayor Young, chairing the meeting, encouraged City Hall staff to Read the rest of this entry »