Dismantling of two Langley City apartment buildings is underway, but the demolition of side-by-side rental blocks is still a few weeks away.
Last December, residents of Merton Court and Carroll Court received notices from property owner Linda Wu that the two buildings were scheduled for demolition, tentatively on April 1.
Wu told the Times last week that the buildings will be razed sometime after the scheduled demolition date.
“Yes, we are preparing to demolish both Carroll Court and Merton Court now,” she said. “We need to remove asbestos first. This will take one or two months.”
“After we successfully clean the buildings, we will demolish them. There is no definite date on when the demolition will start yet, since we are still working on removing (the) asbestos now,” Wu added.
Moving forward, Wu said she is applying to the City of Langley for a new development.
Wu’s rezoning and development permit application is currently under City review.
“We would really like to improve this part of community,” Wu said. “As far as we know, everyone in our neighbourhood is very supportive to us.”
If approved, the new development will be a five-storey, 88-unit condominium building on the same property where Merton and Carroll Court currently stand.
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Langley City’s director of development services, Gerald Minchuk, noted that Wu’s application has been seen and approved by the City’s Advisory Planning Commission and will come before council for first and second reading on April 3, with a public hearing slated for April 24.
‘Beyond Means of Repair’
News of the demolition came roughly nine months after a March 23, 2016 fire destroyed six apartment units at Carroll Court, 5630 201A St. When firefighters arrived, flames were shooting out of a second floor unit at the back.
The adjacent Merton Court building, at 5640 201A St., was untouched.
In a notice to residents dated Dec. 5, 2016, Wu said insurance assessments revealed the scope of the damages.
“Unfortunately,” Wu said in the notice, “this is beyond our means of repair.”
She continued to operate the two buildings until Feb. 28, since that was the last day of insurance coverage.
Wu told the Times in December that, in addition to the fire damage at Carroll Court, the two buildings are more than 50 years old with “asbestos and lots of problems.”
According to BC Assessment, Carroll Court was built in 1964 and was assessed in July 2015 at $1,925,000.
Merton Court was constructed a year later, in 1965, and had a total value of $2,042,000.
Both Merton and Carroll Courts were known as some of the cheapest places to rent in Greater Vancouver, with average rates beginning around $650 per month.
Leading up to the demolition, security is the biggest concern, Wu said, noting thieves are “constantly trying to enter” the two buildings.
Once asbestos removal begins, anyone entering the buildings without proper protection will run a risk of harming their health, she warned.
“We put professional security guards and a monitoring station on site to try to prevent this (from happening),” she added.
