A huge thank you to those of you who were able to make it out to the hearing last night.
Last night was the result of public action, in a way Langford hasn’t seen before. We saw consistent, smart pressure applied by citizens to Council and to the developer – and it worked. We asked for additional public consultation – and we got it. We asked for 40% open space on the parcel – and we got it. Of course, there is still more for us to do in achieving our goal of covenanted, natural park in South Langford – but we’re winning the fight to see a more environmentally and socially sustainable approach to development in Langford.
Perhaps even more importantly, Langdon Weir was applauded by other developers for increasing the dedicated greenspace from 25% to 40%. This decision is, in fact, the minimum set out in the OCP, but has rarely been applied by Council in the past. The public support for this standard – especially from the development community – sets a precedent for development in Langford going forward.
Finally, the City heard the message loud and clear that the public wants it to acquire covenanted parkland, using city funds dedicated towards that purpose. For a quick summary of the public hearing, check out this article in the Goldstream Gazette.
What’s next?
We now need to focus our efforts on…
- Ensuring that the City creates a new park, by using funds from the Parkland Acquisition Reserve Fund, and by collaborating with the developer and The Land Conservancy
- Monitoring the ‘Development Permit’ process, and ensuring that they are maximizing opportunities for ecological protection going forward
- Looking for opportunities to compel the developer to protect greenspace
Here are 3 easy things you can do to help now:
- Sign and share the petition
- Help grow our community by sharing our facebook page
- Let us know if you’d like to get more involved with the efforts- we can always use more help!
As always, thank you for sticking with us. We’ve got a lot of work ahead and none of it would be possible without your support.