Developer Gloom and Doom.

 Times are a changing.

Developers may lose their shirts over Brookswood/Fernridge and be the cause of unemployment for their camp followers.

5 year mortgages are coming up, and people will be facing rate shock when suddenly confronted by much higher rates of interest - plus other loans like home equity are now over 7%. People, hooked on debt, have overextended themselves and many will have to sell their houses, and their toys.

They won't be buying condos and townhouses. 

There will likely be more dwellings on the market on top of a large glut of condos nearing completion in the near future from other developers who hope to sell their large inventory. They will try to sell to a market who will no longer be able to afford the prices they are asking. Sparking not bidding wars but competing percentage discounts after the promotions fail to bear fruit. Then the foreign owners will start to sell their empty condos, and there are many of those.

Black days ahead for the real estate market.

The Bank of Canada is not done with their rate hikes yet - a 1/2% increase alone just in the last two months. To give you an idea about how high they could go the B of C went as high as 18% in the 1980s to combat inflation.

And it's much more expensive to build these days with inflation going up monthly.

Many developers locked themselves into high cost loans themselves and just bought the 'development' land at the height of the market, paying top dollar, and there's lot's of competition out there.

Scary stuff for them as they have much to lose.

Martini construction knows this and has halted construction on the corner of 208th and 42nd. and are trying to rent their lot out for storage. They know what's coming.

This is no longer 2014 where people from other countries were knocking on doors trying to get people to sell to them. High immigration may not last long with the Federal Liberals facing low approval ratings, and new controls and taxes on foreign ownership and speculation is removing the grease from the housing market wheels. Lately the Liberals have been bringing in mostly lower income people who developers love to employ but who cannot afford houses, townhouses, or even condos.

Things are slowing down.

Lot's of things to worry about these days. If I was a developer I would be shaking in my boots.

Brookswood/Fernridge may just be their undoing...

That's what you get when your new mayor is a Developer. Collecting all that against them data was waste of money. I guess listening wasn't part of it.

 https://www.langleyadvancetimes.com/news/three-brookswood-neighbourhood-plans-adopted-by-langley-township-council/?fbclid=IwAR3TT6qn7Kk4irOmPCD152jqE5eXUxb2uks5RTkwyBtmVFZ8jKzGUxNk7EM

Write to TOL Council before 7pm.

 It can be short and sweet.

But it has to be before 7pm to be counted. 

Even something short like: 'I don't want Willoughby type development and population density in Brookswood/Fernridge! Then add your name and address.

mayorcouncil@tol.ca

legservicesinfo@tol.ca

Public Meeting tonight at the Township Hall! Be there!

BS!

Most speakers give thumbs up to Brookswood neighbourhood plans

 

It is much worse.

 It is “not a version of Willoughby 2.0,” Woodward said, which was a longtime concern of Brookswood residents.

https://www.aldergrovestar.com/news/more-density-smaller-lots-better-tree-protection-promised-in-new-brookswood-plans/

Contract with Langley website - The Honest Version...

 

Not even Jack Froese wanted population numbers to go as high as 62,000!

2012. Q: So Brookswood/FR residents what do you think of the density in our plan? A: We don't want high density. 2014. So Brookswood/FR residents what do you think of this level of density? A: We don't want high density. 2017. So Brookswood/FR residents what do you think of this density? A: We don't want high density! 2023. So Brookswood/FR residents we increased the density to 62,000! What do you think of this? A: We don't want high density!!!

Remember this? Now they want 62,000!

This is one of the triggers that caused so much anger the last time...

Monday, April 15, 2013...

Whoa! Population spike on a whim!

Quote from latest draft land use plan:

'Population Summary 

The population forecast for the area, based on proposed Land Use Designations, is approximately 42,000 people.'

(??!!)

Wow!  That is quite the sudden population increase from 36,000!!  Or 33,600 or even 32,000 as stated in the questionnaire last time...

Yes, yes, it's just an estimate you say.  But if we can't trust you to come up with proper estimates what can we trust you with?  If I was managing you, we would be having a little talk behind closed doors.

It makes one wonder if the planning department really knows what they are doing.  It also shows an offensively disdainful regard for the residents of Langley, the same residents that you milk for votes and tax revenue.

The people of Brookswood were lead-by-the-nose to view a presentation involving 3 options only!  You can't combine or mix, or befuddle, blend, defuse, finesse or slime those carefully manipulated distinct options into any sort of hybrid without us howling blue murder!

Doesn't the planners and politicians understand that we (the present residents and lion share of the property owners, tax payers and voters in Brookswood) Don't want to live in high density.

You did it elsewhere don't do it here!

This gives you the appearance of being money-grubbing, crooked and OBTUSE 

I feel a betrayal will be ensured when this thing (which shouldn't have been attempted in the first place) comes down the line...

Oh and by-the-way having almost half of all the undeveloped land mass in Brookswood designated 6 units (houses) per acre is a 150% increase in density compared to what exists presently in Brookswood.

http://www.tol.ca/Portals/0/FileShare/ComDev/2013-04-11_April_open_house_boards_LR.pdf

LISTEN AND HEAR US!

 

WE WILL STAND AGAINST BROOKSWOOD/FERNRIDGE BEING TURNED INTO ANOTHER HIGH DENSITY, DEVELOPER-CONTROLLED, WILLOUGHBY MESS. THIS IS OUR COMMUNITY!

 

How much do you want to bet that Eric Woodward and his slate have been well financed by Surrey developers?

 That is probably the main reason why they want to 'Get it Right in Brookswood Fernridge'. Didn't we just get rid of a pro development mayor?

Eric Woodward and his slate will NOT make Brookswood/Fernridge into another Willoughby!

 We are ready to fight again.

Langley Township: Eric Woodward declared mayor

 https://www.aldergrovestar.com/news/langley-township-election-night-results/

 

Kind of what the TOL wants to do to our communities by widening roads to four lanes or more...

 https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/9/11/want-to-understand-how-freeways-destroyed-us-cities-watch-this-guy-play-citiesskylines?utm_content=buffer86068&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer&fbclid=IwAR3Z4jabwP6UVzAWb78qMqL9Tb4sslyr22A3DGB5iPHaWDx0r6jaBfTnEw0&fbclid=IwAR2-mTVkmK_NtDho-s5GzBWr7VPQYpfvztZJ3RJTnq7Q4IatWHwMl8Zinig

Our Future Responsibility

The world is in a period of hyper population growth.

Remember not too long ago when the world population was 7 billion, that was 2011. We're now over 7.8 billion and climbing rapidly - mostly in other countries across the oceans that protect us.

Usually the rich, skilled and educated come here and they abandon people in their previous country to do so, as they're knowledge and skills are needed at home. Basically a 'see you later Suckers' attitude. Big business, influential developers and speculators take advantage of this wellspring of new immigration waving their converted dollars around because housing here is so 'cheap'.

Mixed together they destroy our future agricultural land, build their crappy houses, tear-up, fill-up and stack themselves into quiet neighbourhoods and upset the economical equilibrium for the long time local residents.

Countries like Canada have to show responsibility and NOT encourage wild growth, they should take care of their own people first, have a sustainable outlook, not one built on growth and MONEY, MONEY, MONEY... Immigration should not be a get rich scheme for underhanded greedy 'Canadians'.

Maybe you think stacking people in buildings like industrial egg laying hens is okay, it's not.

Worry about your kid's future, or your grandkids as more and more people are stacked together. Always keep in mind that large population concentrations can't help but pollute and destroy the world around them, destroy our beautiful country.

Future generations have to live in the mess you create.

And pandering to developers isn't helping - as it stands, the future's looking bleak.

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

Letter: Mayor should not have called Brookswood re-vote

https://www.langleyadvance.com/opinion/letter-mayor-should-not-have-called-brookswood-re-vote/

Dear Editor,

I would like to express my dissatisfaction with the mayor’s decision to re-vote on the Brookswood-Fernridge OCP when he was seeming not pleased with the outcome of the first vote – despite his saying that he would “respect the wishes of the individual councillors to vote how they feel for their own particular reasons.”

I am confident that the councillors who opposed the plan did so for quite different reasons, some because they didn’t think the amendments went far enough, some who thought they went too far, some who thought it simply wasn’t a good enough plan. It seems evident to me that if five of nine vote against, it is not a good plan. A plan of such scope that is opposed by numerous residents for numerous reasons, as well as by council, could not possibly do justice to the residents and the community.

I am dumbstuck that a mayor could take it into his own hands to persevere with a plan defeated by his own council. Prior to the vote, he said “it’s the township’s plan, Brookswood’s plan, it belongs to the community – it’s not my plan.” Those are very nice words, but they belie his true conviction, and his doubling back when he saw that it had failed.

Kathy Marsden,

Langley

One the major problems that we face as a community in Langley is that our local government and administration is corruptible..

There is only one reason why this OCP process has gone this far: GREED.

The Brookswood ∞ OCP Update

Brookswood OCP No Vote

The council No vote was the right thing. It was rushed and the document really is full of holes that will be exploited by developer greed.

Jack's vote never really counts since he ALWAYS votes FOR DEVELOPMENT.  He's still trying to push it through.

Maybe the council should now wait until late September when everyone is not away on vacation. Or is this summertime OCP timing by design?

There still isn't any trust guys. We've learned.

Mr. Fox's Perpetual OCP Machine...

TOL Back-Room Bias

Got Trees?

"Protect the natural environment..."

The policy in the proposed Community Plan that allows neighbourhood plans to consider a range of 4,000 ft2 to 7,000 ft2 lots in the Single Family 3 designation (in specific areas or under certain conditions) supports a number of the Plan’s Guiding Principles:

• #2 (protect the natural environment) by providing opportunities to cluster new housing on a portion of a development site to protect natural features, including trees, on the other part of the site.

"Protect the natural environment"...

Let's make something clear here.  Every house built is going to make the environment worse.  It will tear another hole in the ecology, create more open space and less animals, less trees, more carbon, more warming, more solid waste, less room, more people siphoning off the water from the Brookswood aquifer.  It protects nothing, but humans, and there is already 7.2 billion of them on this earth.

Ha! Protect the environment??  What BS!!

This statement is right up there with the AECOM consultant's comment that "development would be good for the aquifer" during the very first open house years ago. That comment spurred me to help protect our beautiful community from greed.

Once again those in charge of the Brookswood OCP Planning have stepped in it.

Once again, at the last possible moment, they have slipped in a change that wasn’t on the roster.

This is what triggered all the outrage last time.

Once again they think the residents are fools, but we aren’t.

This is our community!

You will listen to us, not those who don’t live here!

OCP FOOD FOR THOUGHT...

The following will be protested:

1. Density levels being more than Fort Langley and Murrayville.

2. Willoughby building practices including row housing and apartments.

3. Lot sizes less than 7000 square feet.

4. Any attempt to slip in 4000 square foot lots as 'Back fill' or On Site Density Transfers.

4. Brookswood-Fernridge borders being changed (without proper door to door public consultation) pushing Fernridge north well into the borders of Brookswood.

5. Widening of roads to 4 lanes which will destroy the character of the community.

6. Widening of 42nd, 40th 36th and 24th Avenue beyond the width they are now.

7. Town centres that go beyond the size and character of the Brookswood town centre as it stands not just add elements that emulates the look of a town centre while adding density like done by developers in Willoughby.

8. Non responsible and greedy developer practices.

9. Any attempt to change our wonderful, natural, community into a people packing, property racketeering, pocket padding, developer/planner playground like Willoughby.

This is our community not yours, not the planner's, not some planning consultant's, not the developers.

Respect us and the place we live!

Just because some plan has been created doesn't mean we stop - nothing is written in stone.

WE WILL STAND AGAINST BROOKSWOOD/FERNRIDGE BEING TURNED INTO ANOTHER HIGH DENSITY, DEVELOPER-CONTROLLED, WILLOUGHBY MESS. THIS IS OUR COMMUNITY! DID YOU NOT HEAR US THE LAST TIME??

OCP REDUX: the development serving questionnaire.

As a 'supporter' of development you can answer the questionnaire but if you aren't a supporter you can't.

Examples:

This community plan update will accommodate population growth in the Undeveloped Areas of Brookswood-Fernridge. (remember when the Frose gang expanded the 'Undeveloped' Areas to more than half of the community) Fig 1  When planning for population growth, defining and locating “centres” that will accommodate a large portion of population growth is a major strategy.  Centres are compact places that offer a mix of commercial uses, residential uses, and community amenities.  They function as the “heart” of the larger community.

Question 3:

To accommodate growth, Brookswood-Fernridge will need to have multiple centres that vary in size and scale. A community-serving centre would be the largest, providing a broader range of shops and services that serve the needs of the whole community. Neighbourhood-serving centres, would be relatively (relative to what?) modest in size and scale, consisting of smaller shops and services that serve the day-to-day needs of the local neighbourhood. 

Idea: Given that the area around 200 Street and 32 Avenue is relatively central and accessible to the whole community, a new community-serving centre should be considered near 200 Street and 32 Avenue.

I like this idea

I'm open to this idea, but need more details

I don't like this idea

Why not ask:  Do you want a shopping and service area built in the 200 Street and 32nd Avenue area?

Be clear and don't try to phrase things to your advantage, or for the purpose of future plausible deniability - even if you stick the word 'IDEA:' out front.

Remember, a development skewed OCP Planning process is what caused all the problems last time.

Considering the increased land mass of the 'Undeveloped Areas' this will become a greater concern to a greater number of people this time.

Is the hand picked Frose dream team taking us down the same road?

FIG 1.

WE DO NOT WANT TENT CITIES IN LANGLEY!!

Capeesh??

You already dropped the ball on meaningful measures against drugs and vagrancy while you 'studied' the issues.

Don't let this get worse.

Building developers are reactive and megalomaniacal.

"Building developers are reactive and megalomaniacal. Just like Trump."
--- Washinghton Post April 8th by Faroll Hamer

Very interesting article in yesterday's Washington Post.

What do you think?

From my experience most local developers are professional, courteous and very respectful like Quadra Homes as an example. They don't attack community groups or their thought leaders, municipal council decision makers, or the average tax payers at public hearings or on social media. Following are some of the most provocative quotes in this article.

"They view themselves as victims. They see regulations as getting in the way of what’s good for economic development and society as a whole, and believe governments exist to pick on them. Everything they do is for us, because they are building places for us to live, shop or work."

"The scary side is that they sometimes brush aside legal obstacles to what they see as a worthy goal. They know the difference between right and wrong, but often they aren’t particularly worried about the letter of the law."

"While tactically inventive, they are strategically unimaginative. They’re not people who enjoy creative thinking or the big picture; they’ll build the same building over and over, but they are endlessly flexible about achieving each project. It’s all about the next step. In negotiations they’re willing to get only part of what they want because they know they’re going to come back and get another part and another, until before you know it, they have it all. They’re into getting their nose under the tent."

"They have no interest in ideology. They value loyalty over principle — you’re either in the circle or not — and they’re usually generous to loyal friends...."

“...since they identify their projects with the general social welfare, they tend to be a little megalomaniacal. Almost any attention you give them is good. They don’t mind being teased, but pointed criticism is unacceptable.”

“And it’s when a developer encounters political resistance that his sense of victimhood really kicks in. Trump has called himself a “counter-puncher”; once offended, he reacts with little restraint. But Twitter insults are pretty trivial.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reactive-inconsistent-megalomaniacal-trump-fits-the-developer-profile/2016/04/08/ec302270-fb54-11e5-886f-a037dba38301_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-c:homepage/story

When are Community 'Improvements' not Improvements...

...when the residents of a community don't want or need them...

'Improvements' such as road widening, intersection upgrades, destruction of parks and Township owned vacant land (that are well used by community kids to play in), and some tax payer funded new and expensive facilities that don't always improve the lives of the community, and have to pay for forever.

In fact road widening (such as proposed for 40th Ave.) for the most part just improve the lives of commuters and residents from other areas while destroying the character of a community that residents love. Also making it harder to get from point A to point B due to new medians, barricades and blockages, and shaving off and fencing off parks and school grounds just so people driving through the area can have a passing lane, when many residents just want some sort of traffic calming through the streets they call home.  You are just destroying communities while you think you're 'improving' them.

Imagine a four lane highway going past YOUR front yard on 52nd with a major intersection at 248th St.  I bet that wouldn't feel good...

I call it Politician 'Bronze Plaque Fever' or 'Surreyfication' - look at what all the sprawling 'Improvements' have done for that city.  You have a good example of what not to do just to the west of us, if only you would stop listening so much to the developers and instead honestly listen to the community residents BEFORE the survey tape goes up.  After all we are people you must respect and not just planning board markers.

You can't call it 'improvement' when you're shoving it down people's throats...

Have too much tax money? Put it towards building sidewalks traffic calming and maintenance, or study what basements do to a community given the probability of illegal suites and the attending stress on utilities, and congestion.  Just a suggestion there.  :)

Better yet, these days while the Township is gorging themselves on property tax, put the windfall into investments so you can actually gives the residents a Tax Break when a recession next kicks in again instead of raising the taxes like you did the last time.

A Promise for the Protection of Brookswood/Fernridge

The world overpopulating is bad for all of us.

'Pack em in' like they did in Willoughby IS NOT a good policy for Brookswood/Fernridge.

We will always oppose urbanization and maximum population growth (maximum developer profit) in the area.

The developers cannot have their way like they did with Willoughby.

Yes it seems our mayor has been bought, but it doesn't mean he and his buddies can get their way. They will have to be responsible and moderate in their approach.

The developers and builders must reject their base profit making instinct and use a more European, well planned, lower population approach that leaves most of the trees and land untouched instead of the slash-and-dash, English row housing, condos-and-townhouses-everywhere-blocking-out-the-sun approach that is not in keeping with the natural state of the area.

The residents wont stand for anything else.

I cannot believe that we have to deal with the magnitude of crap that is being built in Langley, especially after the poor example that Surrey provided us over the last several decades.

Come on!  You could have done much, much better.   

Poorly done people, poorly done.