Word has been passed to the media that on Wednesday, July 29th, “a world-class golf tournament in 2010″ is to be announced. The media advisory is deliberately scant on details, but some elements can be gleaned from it.

While a community, a specific golf course, or the charity that will benefit have not been announced, there are nonetheless some hints. Read the rest of this entry »

*Please note, this post was updated with feedback from Langford City Planner Matthew Baldwin, and information presented at the public meeting.*

A multi-lot fee simple proposal North of the highway is on the Planning, Zoning, and Affordable Housing Committee agenda for Monday night. Fee simple, meaning a property owned outright (for example, without a strata arrangement), was recently expanded to townhouses for the first time in Langford.

912 Shaw is North of Florence Lake, and Setchfield Road. It is within a “Interface Forest fire Development Permit Area”. The property could be turned into a four lot strata, and the variance requests seeks to create the same arrangement except on a fee-simple basis rather than with a strata.

Due to traffic congestion on the Millstream overpass, the City of Langford made it Council policy not to approve any permits or variances North of the highway that would increase density until the Spencer Road Interchange was built. The Interchange is still not complete at this time, but the staff report notes that this could be subdivided into as many as four strata lots (and the developer has argued that it could in fact be turned into as many as six strata lots), so this variance is meant to mimick the density already possible under other arrangements as opposed to a density increase.

There is a proposal to put a “Group Daycare” at 948 Dunford, the Sea Cadet Hall across from Sandy’s Auto Parts. The proposal says that Happy Campers Child Care Ltd. is applying on behalf of the Juan de Fuca
Cadet Youth Society, perhaps suggesting the daycare will be leasing the building and that ownership will not change.

The proponents are requesting not only the fairly common requests to vary the minimum lot width and to vary the setbacks, but also to be absolved of landscaping and frontage improvement requirements.

Traffic has in the past been a flashpoint on Dunford, with residents expressing concern that the current industrial uses, and condos that have been approved in the areas, have stressed traffic on the street well beyond acceptable levels. Dunford also has posted recommended speed signs of 20 KM/h near the intersection with Jacklin which some residents argue are not being observed. The Sea Cadet site has eight parking spaces, and a restrictive covenant that will not allow drop-off or pick-up on the street has been proposed, to address the parking concerns that have been expressed in several neighbourhoods in recent years, which may mitigate neighbourhood parking concerns. However, if there is opposition to the proposal it may come in the form of traffic concerns on Dunford and surrounding streets.

Day care spaces are important for our community, especially with Langford being the only Greater Victoria municipality where the average age is dropping (due to young families moving into the community at a rate fast enough to outstrip the aging of the community and retirees relocating here). If there is support for the proposal it may come from those who argue that those same condos that have been blamed for traffic woes will help drive demand for daycare spaces.

The staff report suggests that the committee may want to recomment that the normal amenity contributions be waived, but does not discuss why this suggestion is made. Many municipalities have shown a willingness to create incentives for day care operations to set up in their community, and this is the likely rationale.

Below is the Read the rest of this entry »

There are two proposals for tomorrow’s Planning, Zoning, and Affordable Housing Committee meeting:

- a four-lot fee simple subdivision on 912 Shaw ave (north of Florence Lake)

- 948 Dunford (the Sea Cadet Hall) to become a group daycare

Watch for posts later today looking at each proposal in more depth.

The agenda is up for Monday night’s Council Meeting. The agenda files have been added to Inside Langford’s new Box.net-powered public Files section. This area is accessible on the left hand side in the bar that contains the list of recent comments, the monthly archives, and the blog stats. Please let me know if it works for you or not.

The agenda for the Monday Night meeting (please check the Langford Community Calendar for time and location) has a development on the often-contentious Walfred Road, with the proponent behind the development being none other than Langford councillor Winnie Sifert. Also of interest is a discussion on the Olympic Torch run, which at present they are planning to bring through Goldstream Ave on or around October 30th.

Noticed something that interested you in the 206 page agenda package? Let others know in the comments below.

As I author this post, Inside Langford is 3 hits away from 100,000 visits. That’s no mean feat for a news blog with a focus on a community of only about 23K people. The 100K visits have occured over only 18 months, and in that time 1235 comments have been left on 535 articles, according to the stats that the software I use provides me. Over those 18 months the site has had three moderators (of which I was not the first), and with the recent launch of the community calendar and the active commenting by several people remains a community effort.

Langford’s news blog will continue to be an advertising-free volunteer effort and will continue to provide news, and provide a forum for people to share their own news and views. To enhance that, I’m commemorating the 100K visit to Inside Langford by launching a new community news feature. If you have a hot news tip you haven’t seen here, click on “Reader News” on the main navigation bar and provide the news (preferrably with a link, or other supporting information) in the comment section. This means comment posters will no longer have to wait for a topical article to show up to post their thoughts on a news story, get it up on Inside Langford as soon as you hear about it. The best reader news may be re-posted to the main news page, enhancing Inside Langford’s status as an interactive community news blog.

For those interested, the number of visits to Inside Langford is visible on the left side of the screen, below the recent comments and the archives. Thank you all for visiting, contributing to, and continuing to show interest in Inside Langford.

There has been a lot of chatter in the media about local developer Len Barrie’s recent financial troubles with the NHL, and the in-fighting between him and another owner of Tampa Bay Lightning.

I was curious how the issue of Bear Mountain and Barrie’s ownership of the Lightning was being seen in the Florida media, versus the national and local media. For those interested this is what I found:

Co-owner Len Barrie’s resort deal no risk to Tampa Bay Lightning, Siraj Capital official says

http://www.tampabay.com/sports/hockey/lightning/article1018458.ece

NHL observers offer stark options for resolution of Tampa Bay Lightning’s ownership battle

http://www.tampabay.com/sports/hockey/lightning/article1013963.ece

There are three applications on the agenda for tonight’s PZ&A committee meeting

- 674 Fairway Avenue “to Rezone from R2 [One- and Two-Family Residential] to a new RM9A
[Medium-Density Apartment A] Zone to allow for the Development of Approximately 11 Residential Units)”;

- 3350 Happy Valley Road “to Rezone from GR2 [Greenbelt Residential 2] to RM7A [Medium-Density Apartment A] and to Vary the Parking Requirements to Allow for the Development of Approximately 32 Townhouses);

- and 974 Preston Way “to Rezone from R2 [One- and Two-Family Residential] to RS2
[Residential Small Lot 2] to Allow for a Two-Lot Residential Subdivision.

After no new agendas appearing on the Langford City Hall notice board for quite a while, there are three agendas for this coming week:

- Planning, Zoning, and Affordable Housing Monday night at 7 pm,

- Admin & Finance Tuesday night at 4:45 pm,

- Transportation and Public Works Tuesday night at 5:30 pm.

More on these agendas as we read through them. In the meanwhile, if Inside Langford readers have any observations please post them below.

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 »