SAVE OUR COMMUNITY FROM UNCARING PEOPLE!

SAVE OUR COMMUNITY FROM UNCARING PEOPLE! Working hand in hand with developers, Langley Township continue to force a plan that will change the landscape of Brookswood from a community with rural (“Horse capital of BC”) roots to a crowded urban wasteland of row housing and condos just like so many other communities in the Lower Mainland. We believe Langley Township is listening to the wrong people, and we wonder if the planners and “experts” who have devised this plan actually live in this community. It seems the Township doesn't care about keeping our community a beautiful place to live, where people can own larger properties with big trees, they just care about squeezing as many people (and as many tax dollars) out of the land as they possibly can. Don't let them do this to us and our wonderful community, don't let them destroy where we live the same way they did Willoughby! We CAN stop them! Gather together to save our homes and save the brooks and woods in Brookswood. Make your voice heard. Contact the Township of Langley, attend their meetings to find out what they have planned for your neighbourhood, voice your disapproval!

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Langley transportation vote debate

http://www.cbc.ca/news/langley-transportation-vote-debate-1.2919578

Does Jack (who lives close to Abbostford) promise that after he helps raise transit taxes he wont go to Abbotsford to by goods and gas? Will he make use of the scores of buses that 'Link Transportation' service throughout Aldergrove, an area where Jack lives? I'm sure the business owners and my fellow Langley Citizens would agree that we aren't getting much for the tons of funds that we are throwing down the Translink well.

Personally I think TransLink is a bit of a scam - and a poorly run one at that.

See also a piece by Eric Woodward: http://www.langleycitizen.com/2015/01/09/120

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Some perspective on Brookswood development - Letter to the Editor

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Some perspective on Brookswood development

posted Jul 21, 2014 at 5:00 PM by Joel Nagtegaal - Langley

http://www.langleytimes.com/opinion/letters/268026121.html

I did write: save Brookswood from becoming "a crowded urban wasteland of row housing and condos” and I'm glad that it's getting some attention and in fact prompted your thoughtful letter.

I thought of writing that line just as I headed south over the bridge at 208th and hwy 1. As I looked around what came to mind was a wasteland, a sterile, treeless and unimaginative cyst on the Langley landscape, brought about by those who worship a candy-coated international box style chosen for it's ability to shoehorn as many families into as small an area as possible thus maximize the money intake or in other words: 'Profit Enhancement.' It's obvious the developers are in control there while the planners flop around like so many stunned fish.

Our planning department could have prevented this but they let the developers have their way. Those developers promptly shunned thoughtful infrastructure in favour of profits - their ill conceived leavings to be mopped up by the taxpayers at a later time. You may not like my choice of words but they are fully informed from observation. I chose not to be blind and decided to protect the future of Brookswood.

People got upset in Brookswood for the developers, planners and township officials thought they could play us for fools. That they could just come in unopposed and 'set-up shop' like they have done everywhere else in the lower mainland. That a population of 42K, and the widening 40th avenue to 4 lanes and shoving it through Brookswood park could just be slid into the plans near the end of the planning process as long as they felt the breeze was blowing their way. That they could slap each other on their backs and revel in their good luck for they were on their way to more easy cash.

I agree with you, I would like to improve Brookswood while preserving and actually building upon the character and natural beauty of the area. But the developers and planners will have to be super careful and do everything properly. Even then developers have to be watched to ensure they stick to the plan and don't make backroom, under the table deals with the township as is their nature, and the township will have to be watched to make sure they are above board and don't feel that they are their own bosses, as is their nature here in Langley.

For as we have found out with developers and their township 'friends' throughout the lower mainland over the last few decades, trust (or lack of) is a serious issue and screwing the existing residents is part of their game.