The Monday night Planning, Zoning, and Affordable Housing (PZ&H) Committee meeting Monday had only one issue to look at, and that was to rezone a property (one that’s part of the Bear Mountain Comprehensive Development). At present it is estimated to be able to hold possibly hundreds of lots, and the owner (and resident) Lawrence Paul Goudy is requesting it be rezoned for only 15, an unusual request.

Paul Goudy, as he was addressed by Denise Blackwell who chaired the proceedings, was sitting with former Langford Councillor John Goudy and his wife, but Paul alone spoke and Paul is the only applicant on the zoning request. He spoke about his reasons for the request, indicating that he lived on the property and wanted it, and the surrounding area, to stay as it was until he died. It was noted by the committee that this could possibly a very long time, an apparent reference to Paul Goudy being a relatively young individual. Paul expressed a strong desire for the forested property to remain without public access while he was alive, after which “I’d be happy to give it to Langford after I’m gone.”

There was discussion of covenants and other ways to preserve the land. Paul Goudy made it clear that he wanted to realise a different vision for the land than what has happened in the adjoining Bear Mountain development, saying “I’ve seen what’s happened at Bear Mountain and it’s devastating.”

Langford Planner Matthew Baldwin noted that Read the rest of this entry »

Tomorrow night’s Planning, Zoning, and Affordable Housing Committee meeting (agenda now available in the Inside Langford “FILES” section on the left sidebar) is slated to look at only one issue: 2510 Echo Valley Drive on Bear Mountain.

The proposal is to rezone the property, which currently has one dwelling on it, to a zone that allows for fifteen. The owner and resident, Lawrence Paul Goudy, is prepared to donate 55% of the property as “open space”. The staff report notes that 2510 Echo Drive “is forested, and lies within designated environmentally sensitive and hazardous development permit areas,” and that “no development may occur on the subject property (under existing or proposed zoning) prior to Read the rest of this entry »

A staff report appearing Monday night (at 5 PM) before the Parks, Recreation, Culture, and Beautification Committee notes that the consultant, hired by the City of Langford to coordinate “the City’s parkland inventory,” has prepared a first draft. It goes on to add that Langford staff are “anticipating a public open house to be held at City Hall in mid to late October,” and that “This will be the final open house for public input, as we have hosted public open house workshops during the preparation of the Parks Master Plan draft document.”

The PRC&BC agenda has been added to Inside Langford’s “FILES” area on the left sidebar.

Langford Council is having a public hearing tonight on an “omnibus” package of amendments to the zoning bylaw tonight. These occur occasionally when there are a series of amendments to the zoning bylaw for discussion, and rather than separate bylaws and public hearings for each they consider them as a package. Here is the summary of proposed amendments provided with the agenda:

Read the rest of this entry »

The City of Langford might consider borrowing $1.2 million as an economic stimulus.

PDF. p. 73/119
Staff Report (File No. 6100-25)

At the August 11″ meeting, the Economic Stimulus Committee recommended approval of the
Downtown Revitalization Plan and requested staff to present the plan to Council for
endorsement. The estimated budget to complete all the works shown is approximately 1 to
1.2Million.
- the plan included a roundabout at Bryn Maur, significant landscaping along the Westbrook Mall, Bank of Montreal and KFC frontages, an archway over Goldstream and a replicated heritage water tower and train feature in the roundabout.

As a regular attendee to council and committee meetings, I was confused there was a meeting on Tuesday, August 11th I was unaware of. I was very surprised there is a committee I had never heard of and one I have no idea of who serves on it. I also do not remember a committee or council discussion on the merits of the City of Langford taking on a massive debt load to create work for what will be a small group of people as compared to the number of Langford tax payers that will ultimately carry the burden of that debt load. One wonders if this borrowing bylaw, if it goes forward this coming Monday night, would go through a public approval process unlike the $5-6 million the City of Langford has already borrowed for the Spencer Road Interchange due to a Local Area Service agreement circumventing the normal public approval process. The City of Langford also has further debt, some of which I believe is for their sewer infrastructure.

There will be a Council Meeting Monday, the first one since July 20th (well, the first one open to the public in any case).

As I work both Fridays and Saturdays, I am generally unable to go through the often large Langford agenda packages thoroughly until Sunday, but I have put the agenda up in the Files section so please post any observations about it in the comments below.

It’s been a dry spell of Langford news, but thank you to our regular visitors who have been commenting up a storm on Inside Langford anyway. Also thank you to those who submitted reader news, including the most recent (and very interesting) piece contrasting Gazette coverage and independent media coverage of the current status of the Spencer Road Interchange.

Below is a summary of Times Colonist coverage of Langford so far this month.

Read the rest of this entry »

A reminder that, as is typical on statutory holidays, Langford City Hall is closed today.

…but there is a notice of an “in-camera” meeting.

Normally, meetings in Langford are held at the end of a public meeting. This Tuesday the in-camera meeting is flying solo, not proceeded by a public meeting. There are no other meetings on the docket for the coming week.

The meeting notice was not there last night and appears to have gone up today, so Kudos to whomever at City Hall who is working on the Sunday of a long-weekend. The notice of the in-camera meeting, including the subject that Council will discuss in private, is now up in the Files area in the left-hand sidebar.