A look at the latest revisions to a proposed community development plan for the Brookswood/Fernridge area of Langley Township drew more than 300 people to Brookswood Secondary School on Wednesday, April 10.
It was one of two open houses to present the draft land use plan based on information gathered from a previous round of open houses in January.
The second, at Belmont Elementary School on Saturday, April 13, drew about 250.
The plan would concentrate low-rise apartment buildings and commercial developments at four sites; three intersections on 200 Street at 24, 32 and 40 Avenues, with the fourth at 40 Avenue and 208 Street.
The biggest commercial development would be at 40 Avenue and 200 Street with 16,700 sq. metres (180,000 sq. feet).
Questionnaires handed out at the open house asked residents to rate the overall plan.
To handle the increased traffic generated by the higher housing density, the plan calls for widening 200 Street south of 32 Avenue from two lanes to four, and, eventually, doing the same to 40 Avenue, which would function as “an eastward connector into Aldergrove and onto Fraser Highway” in the words of the planning department presentation distributed at the open house.
Brookswood/Fernridge currently has a population of 13,000, most living in single-family homes.
A 1987 community plan adopted by council envisioned a community of 35,500 at build-out, most of them living in houses on 7,000 square foot lots.
The 25-year-old plan also called for a commercial centre at 200 Street and 32 Avenue, surrounded by multi-family housing with up to 30 units an acre.
A recent planning department assessment said that plan is “outdated, and does not reflect current planning principles, including lessons and insights gained over the past two decades.”
Previous attempts to update the plan foundered because the area lacked sewer service.
But there is sewer service now, as a result of the 200 Street line installed for the upscale High Point development project near the U.S. border, which was approved in 2004.
If all goes according to schedule, the revised plan will be completed this fall, when it will go back to council for approval.
