Fort Langley: Sawmill site housing gets green light
With a permit finally in hand, developers are ready to descend on the former Interfor site next to the village of Fort Langley.
Houses will be sprouting up later this spring on Fort Langley's former sawmill site after the Township Council voted to pass a development permit Monday.
There will be 278 homes and townhouse units built in a development dubbed Bedford Landing, with the first two dozen finished as soon as this fall.
The permit was the last step in a process that began more than seven years ago, when International Forest Products announced it would sell its mill.
The idea of developing the property provoked debate and controversy among Fort residents, and that debate continued at Monday's meeting.
More than a dozen people spoke, mainly to criticize or offer concerns about the way the plan for the project has changed in the past several years.
Helen Smith, the chair of the Fort Langley Community Association, is worried that the project will house many secondary suites.
ParkLane Homes, the developer of the Bedford Landing project, has added basements to the designs since the project was rezoned several years ago.
That could bring in many more people than the development was designed for, if those basements are turned into secondary suites, Smith said.
A reduction in the number of parking spaces on the site is also a concern, as Smith said Fort Langley desperately needs more public parking.
Several people raised the question about the vast amount of sand currently piled on the property.
The sand, dredged from the nearby Bedford Channel, will be used as fill to bring the property up to the same level as the rest of the Fort village, about seven metres above sea level. The homes will be on the same level as the CN Rail tracks and the dike.
The minimum elevation of a home in the area is 6.5 metres due to the potential of the Fraser to flood.
Some residents are worried that the newly raised development will block views of their neighbours.
Raising the level of the land will not only protect the homes from flooding, it will allow for the basements, an important factor for the developers.
"It's absolutely critical, in fact it's the only reason we moved forward with the dredging of the river," said Ben Teddei, in response to a question from Coun. Bob Long.
However, there shouldn't be a problem with secondary suite tenants, Teddei said.
"Our research indicates there will be no suites," said Teddei, to the laughter of the audience.
The owners of the houses will use the basements for office or storage space instead, he said.
Barry Anderson of Langley City said he has been considering a move to Fort Langley in his retirement, but is worried that all of the homes have two storeys, and stairs to their front doors. He also questioned whether the project will really be above the level of floodwater.
Anderson flew over Fort Langley during the devastating flood of 1948.
"The CN tracks were under water," he remembered.
Council's debate on the permit was brief.
Coun. Kim Richter was the sole dissenting voice, worried that the homes wouldn't fit into Fort Langley because of their height and their basements.
She also questioned the concept of townhouses.
"The form and character of Langley is not row houses," Richter said.
She was the only vote against granting the permit.
The Schacter Team - Your Langley Real Estate Experts.