Important to pay attention to what's going on in your back yard

http://www.langleytimes.com/opinion/175678471.html

By Jim McGregor - Langley Times
Published: October 24, 2012 2:00 PM
Updated: October 24, 2012 2:27 PM
 
I don’t always pay attention to what is going on in the community, if it’s not in my back yard. But now something is happening in my back yard up in Brookswood. Maybe I should take a look. It is somewhat reminiscent of 15 years ago in Willoughby, when residents there expressed concern over proposed development.

Back then, while delegations were appearing at council, chainsaws were revving. While public hearings were being organized, bulldozers were being hired and while petitions were being carried door to door, the water and sewer pipe was being stock piled. You see, once the development signs go up, it’s pretty much a done deal.

lf you sit in a municipal budget meeting you will see the department heads presenting their wants and wishes. All valid requests, except you’ll never convince me that a new park is more important than a new fire hall. The requests are totalled up and added to the operating costs, wage increases etc., and that becomes the money they need.

On the other side of the document is the money coming in from taxpayers, grants and funds in reserve. It is never enough to pay for all the stuff they need. If you cut items from the wish lists, staff is unhappy. If you raise taxes, the public is unhappy. The only choice left is to entice more development and increase the tax base. More people, more money.
The next step is the Joni Mitchell plan where ‘You take all the trees, put ’em in a tree museum, and charge the people a dollar and a half just to see ’em.’

The Brookswood development may eventually bring 30,000 more people into the area. Are they going to make 16 Avenue four lanes and funnel them to work in Vancouver that way? Or are they going to choke and squeeze them onto 200 Street? I guess I have to go to a meeting to find out.
Will they tell me I will get sewer and sidewalks after paying my taxes for 20 years, or will those amenities just be for the new folks who have no investment in the community at all? I guess I’d better go ask someone. We do have good people on our council and they will listen and answer. Unfortunately there is also big money talking. Maybe even in a voice louder than yours and mine.
Our problem in Langley is we plan backwards. Our roads and infrastructure should go in first, then bring in people. We need a moratorium on development. We need to disband TransLink, who have no idea that people live south of the Fraser, and clean up the traffic mess the current taxpayers are in. To add more people to a bad situation makes no sense.

You only have to sit in the embarrassing situations on 208 Street, Crush Crescent, Glover Road and Highway 1 to understand we can’t move the people who live here now. With all due respect to my friend the Minister of Transportation, the new Port Mann and all the proposed overpasses should have been in place 10 years ago.

Watch, listen, go to the meetings, and ask questions, no matter where you live. It might not be in your back yard today but it could be tomorrow. At least that’s what McGregor says.
As such, they are 10 years behind and will do nothing for future development south of the Fraser.

Just because there is empty land doesn't mean you have to fill it up.

Density vs. Policing

The problem with increasing density is that the the police can't keep up.  Due to the high cost of policing, cities and townships never seem to provide adequate funds for the police to meet the increased challenges and complexities within a rapidly growing area - part of growing pains.  Unfortunately these growing pains allow more organized and more sophisticated crime to take root.  You have seen this take place over the past decade within Langley and a number of people have died violently because of these activities.  Now people may say that the organized crime and gangs have nothing to do with the rapid influx of development in Langley, then I say: who do you think they feed off of other than the tens of thousands of new people now living here?

Compressive Housing

def. Compressive housing

n.         1.  Planning and constructing as many houses or living spaces possible on a parcel of land therefore increasing the livable density of an area.  This includes townhouses, row housing, condominiums, or any type of multifamily dwelling that is built up or stacked vertically or horizontally with very little or no space between units.   This type of housing is often used to increase the tax base of an area or to maximize a developer’s profits.

2.   Packing as many people as you can into a living space.

3.   Reducing lot sizes to accommodate many multifamily dwellings. 

4.   A  favela.
 

Brazilian Favela...

Development is a Dirty Word

I think that word development is abhorrent to most of the residents of Brookswood, unfortunately the Township website displays a certain way of thinking (maybe they are thinking about it too much) - so I fixed it.  :)

In for a penny in for a pound - maybe?

One of the major problems with hiring and paying for an independent consultant firm to create community plans is that you (the township employees and council) feel a certain obligation to follow the advice since you bought it.  It is only human to feel you have to to justify the expenditure of money.  Fortunately it isn't your money, it is being paid for by the people whos lives will be dramatically altered by you acting upon the consultant's report - ironic isn't it.  Since the money isn't coming out of your pockets then you shouldn't feel obligated to act upon the plan and be free to think of the residents of Brookswood and their homes first - you will then be morally correct and with a clear conscience.

Comments:

Mike MacDonaldNovember 20, 2012 9:18 PM

The(a) problem is that developers, with help of some "development-friendly" senior staff, have convinced council that Development fees are a revenue.

False economy: The way its done in Langley, its a net loss to the people.

Council actually has development fees as revenue on the budget, but fails to put any sign of prorated-capital-costs on the same budget

They therefore argue that we "need" high density to get more taxes and fees (to "balance the budget) but they don't account for the costs of development; the true costs.

They follow reports paid for by Developers as you mention here (this IS what is happening in Brookswood; a developer paid for report is our destiny)

They have people join the local committees like the 'economic committee' to further convey the false-economy that "development is a revenue".

Its a false economy indeed (the way Langley does development without community amenities grants = Development is a net loss).

Development with proper community amenities grants, assorted density, and planning can be very good; but Langley council believes time and again they need the cheapest high density they can get - "to balance the budget".

I look at 208th by Yorkson, (surrounded by ultra-high-density, ugly road, too narrow, unsafe markings, crowded, traffic, with hydro poles in the middle of the road...

...and I think the only things funded by all this development are "consultant reports" and "political campaigns".

Let's Compare

On the left is the heart of a well established Brookswood - large lots and the tall trees that the area is named after.  On the right is what the Township will let the Developers do to Brookswood and the Griffith Neighbourhood if they get their way.  Now the Township and the Developers will try to convince us that they will make a better community.  I say they won't - half way through they will change their plans, make deals, and allow variances.  We have seen it happen already in North Langley.   It is best not to allow major development (or what I call Compressive Housing) to happen in the first place.  Now, which area would you rather live in?

Affordable Housing in Langley

You might want to take note that there will be a draft affordable housing action plan open house Oct 25, 3:30-8pm at the Township of Langley Civic Facility, 4th Floor Lobby (20338 65 Ave).  The draft is found here:  http://www.tol.ca/Services-Contact/Document-Library/fid/192

Some of the areas being explored are creating rental housing along built up areas serviced by transit.

This doesn't bode well for the existing home owners in Brookswood most of whom have no wish for apartments in their community....

"Gap: Lack of a variety of affordable homeownership options
This is not an issue unique to Langley Township, but it is particularly important in a family –friendly municipality. The Township’s Sustainability Charter speaks directly to this though the goal of developing livable and vibrant communities with flexible, affordable and mixed housing options. The wider the choice of housing types and sizes, the more options are available for home ownership."

In a socialist view of the world this is true.  The communists build lots of block housing so everyone could fairly own a home, right?  That worked out well...  :)

 So far the report doesn't include any reference to the risks due to the increase in crime that happens around family social housing.  I used to be a member of the RCMP in Richmond and we were constantly having to deal with crime (drugs, robberies, house break-ins and auto crime)  committed by residents from a number of affordable housing apartments in the Colonial Dr. plus the No. 2 Rd. and Blundell areas.  If a crime happened in west Richmond it usually originated in those two areas.  Friends of mine who were officers in Burnaby also had the same issues with family apartments in the Edmonds area.

 When you build affordable and social housing and increase the population in the area you increase the number of people who are going to involve themselves in crime.  Typically rental units attract a type of person who really doesn't care as much for the place they are living in for they don't have a stake in the community.  This is evidenced by the present spike in serious crime that is now happening in south Brookswood as 'Developers Ghetto' houses are rented out.

Btw, welfare will pay for a rental unit directly, that is directly to the landlord.  So the welfare recipient doesn't have that responsibility (or maybe they are worried the money will be spent on drugs) so any low rent housing units will be built and ready for welfare recipients to move in.  It's good not to have that worry about paying for your home as you are working towards improving Brookswood and Langley...  Personally it feels good to have worked hard to gain an education plus work long hours to keep a job so I can pay the taxes that pay for welfare so welfare recipients can ruin my property, community and steal my belongings to support drug addiction.  :)

Sharks in the Water...

Now that they have caught wind of the changing plans in Brookswood, development companies are now buying up properties at an ever increasing rate and chipping away at the surrounding ALR as well.  One fellow at the meeting told me that a farmer across the road from him could sell his ALR property for $5 million but if he makes application and successfully removes it from the ALR then the value goes up to $7 million - quite the incentive.  This is what happened in Los Angeles and it's surrounding areas and the result is wall-to-wall city with various rates of social decay, with the higher desity areas degrading faster than the rest.  If money was blood then there would be plenty of it around to attract more of the predatory instinct.

There is a good reason for the ALR and there is also a good reason to seriously listen to what the existing residents want over everything and everyone else.  The development companies will continue to lobby and pressure the township to get their way...

Who will will the township listen to?

Trust

As I walked around and spoke with people at the workshop I found that not many trust the township and the planners.

Third Workshop (info gathering session)

I would say that we had an amazing turnout of very concerned Brookswood residents at the Langley Event Center.  Recurring voiced objections:  No small lot sizes, No condos, No Row Housing, Keep the community the way it is.  And what received the biggest supporting cheer from the crowd:

"We want you to listen to us residents NOT the developers!"

Though from my point-of-view the whole thing had an air of placation, everyone was separated into little groups to 'discuss' Brookswood, to mediate feelings, to ultimately create a situation where they can plausibly deny any wrong doing if rights of the residents are trodden upon and Brookswood ends end up like Willoughby.  In other words we were all 'managed' and the meeting went the way they directed it.  I also got a feeling from the tenor of the presentation that the planners are just going to do what they want to do regardless of what we say.  They can pick and choose what they want from the information we just gave them at the 'workshop' and twist it the way they wish and tell us that this is what the majority of the 'respondents' wanted.

Am I being cynical? Yes.  Am I justified in being that way?  Considering the history of development within the Lower Mainland and seeing what has happened in Langley so far, I think I am justified.

The employees of Langley Township must remember that we, the residents, are your employers.  Not the developers.

Evening workshops

I have heard from others that they want to attend but of course the third workshop is much more than full.  Now I trust that the Township is going to provide more sessions in order to properly keep the people residing in the area fully informed and to fulfil a proper (legal) process.  They can't just state that no more sessions will be provided, that would give people a feeling that the plans have already been decided upon.  If not, the entire plan should be mailed to every home owner and resident in Brookswood/Fern Ridge.

Griffith Neighbourhood Plan

Let's hope that they aren't going to blunder around with their planning like thay did in Willoughby (multi-story buildings, English row housing, townhouses, small lots, choking population levels, over crowded schools, traffic jams) for the standard of living will decrease.  Policing and other services become stretched and all those extra people paying property tax do not mutually reduce the tax burden, we will still be saddled with the higher-than-inflation yearly $200 tax increase in Brookswood regardless of the property value curve.  If the planners want to be experimentally ruinous north of Costco then they can, just don't do it down here!  The home owners that have their houses on the shore of that nice man-made lake must be just loving this.

Brookswood/Fernridge Community Plan

http://www.tol.ca/Land-Use-and-Development/Communities-Neighbourhoods/Brookswood-Fernridge

 

They want to double the population of Brookswood. How nice of them.

Why don't they have the residents of Brookswood vote and see what happens.  They don't realize that people have come to live here because they like the place the way it is!

http://www.langleytimes.com/news/172897201.html

How to create a Developers Ghetto.

1. A developer owns land with an old house on it that he or she wants to develop but the local government is dragging their heels about permits.

2. The developer rents-out all the rooms in the house to people dirt-cheep, not caring about references or what kind of people are moving in.

3.  Crime spikes in the surrounding neighbourhoods triggering complaints.  The property becomes a fire hazard, a health concern, a general mess and in quite a few cases grow-ops and meth labs are set up inside.

4. The Fire Marshal, heath department, social services, bylaws and police end up having to frequent the property, complaints continue.

5.  The local government gets involved and attempts to force the developer to make things right - the developer responds with minimal intent and involvement.  The developer may also be in another country (or lie and say they are) and thus be hard to reach.

6.  After a prolonged period of time listening to complaints and issues regarding the property and watching the developer's half-hearted fixes the local government is fed up and coming to the end of their rope on the issue.

7.  After a while the developer approaches the local government and says that he or she can correct the problem with a shiny new development - which is the original intent.

8. The government finally is able to make the problem go away so makes concessions and agrees to the development permit.

Done-Deal.

Many of the local real estate agents are already acting as if the Brookswood Community Plan is a done-deal.  Maybe it is and all we residents can do is watch the chainsaws and bulldozers descend amongst us.

Join our Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/418989468164355/

More consultation needed.

For such a large wide casting community plan there has to be more clarity, advertising and consultation.  Are they just hoping we won't notice?  It seems like it.  This is our community, we live here all the time and the Township should clearly and loudly tell us what they have planned for it.  Maybe the councilors should live here too then they wouldn't want to change it either.

Learn from Surrey...

The City of Surrey bulldozed the wishes of the community in favour of the developers, there is much to learn from them and from Willoughby and there is much hope that it won't happen further in the rest of Langley starting with Brookswood.