Carvolth Plan Update -Mixed-use coming to 200th Street Corridor?

It’s amazing how one park and ride lot can reshape an entire neighbourhood. In November, I posted about an update to the plan for the Carvolth neighbourhood near Highway 1 along the 200th Street corridor. Currently the neighbourhood is doomed to be a “light-industrial” or warehouse district for the Township of Langley. Due to the new park and ride facility being constructed at 202nd Street, the Township wanted to update the plan. Back in November, I liked an early concept for the neighbourhood called “Transit Nodes”. At Monday afternoon’s council meeting, Township Staff presented the final draft version of the plan that will go out for public open house in the next month or so.

Carvolth Plan Update: Red = Mixed-use, Dark Blue = Office-Mixed-use, Brown = Higher-Density Residential, Purple = Light Industrial

The new plan is a modified version of the “Transit Nodes” concept. Overall I’m fairly impressed with this plan, especially with the plan’s mixed-use future for the lands on the east side of 200th Street. On the west side of 200th Street I’m happy that the Township is looking for mixed-use office/retail, but I have to wonder why “light-industrial” use is back on the plan. I know the Township’s Economic Development Advisory Committee has commented in the past that light-industrial land use is the least economically productive use of land. I’d certainly like to see the light-industrial purple on the plan changed to office blue or mixed-use. With a few tweaks to the plan, I can’t wait to see how 200th Street will now start to develop into a transit corridor and 86th Avenue into a high retail street.

Stats prove Surrey should get rapid-transit before Vancouver

Every quarter the American Public Transportation Association releases ridership statistic on transit agencies in Canada and the US. TransLink reports into APTA.

In 2010, TransLink saw 39% growth in ridership on its SkyTrain and Canada Line network while it saw a modest 2% increase in bus and a 3.7% decrease in trolley bus ridership. Up until the third quarter of 2011, TransLink actually saw a modest 1.26% increase in ridership on the SkyTrain and Canada Line, but a further 0.7% decline in trolley bus usage and a 0.3% decrease in regular bus usage.

While the huge growth in rail-based ridership in 2010 was attributed to the Olympics, it is very interesting that TransLink was able to retain all those transit users. In comparison, the trolley bus system and SeaBus (which saw a 8% decrease through the third quarter of 2011) was not successful in capturing new riders. It looks like people really do prefer trains over buses.

On the topic of trolley buses, it’s interesting to note that since 2008 trolley bus ridership has been on the decline. Since these buses only run in Vancouver, has the city seen a flattening out of transit users or peak transit? By the same metric when the Canada Line came online which services “the suburbs”, there was an explosion of growth in transit usage. There are many in Vancouver that do not see beyond Boundary Road and want transit improvements just for themselves. But if these ridership stats are any indication, TransLink will see a more meaning shift of people to transit if they invest in communities like Surrey. In my mind if there is a debate between Surrey or Vancouver getting rapid-transit first, the clear winner should be Surrey.

Full recycling of all packaging coming to Langley City

One of the things that makes me proud about BC is our leadership on recycling. In the next few years, there will be practically no reason why household waste shoud end up in a landfill. I received the following press release in my inbox last night about a recycling trial in the City of Langley. In a few years, we'll finally be able to recycling all that annoying packaging on products. Of course it would be better if there was less packaging used period, but this is a great start.

For 800 homes in the City of Langley, curbside recycling will work a little differently during a 12-week test recycling project running from February 7 through April 27, 2012.  

The temporary change in the recycling program for this group of householders stems from the provincial government’s recent amendment to the Recycling Regulation to include the Packaging and Printed Paper Product Category.  The regulation requires that product producers be responsible for their packaging after consumers have purchased the products. This new product and packaging stewardship program prescribed under the regulation will come into effect on May 19, 2014.

In anticipation of this legislated change, the City has been asked to help test a potential collection system. 

“The City of Langley has partnered with our recycling company, Emterra Environmental, the Canadian Plastics Industry Association and a number of plastics manufacturing companies to test the collection and processing system for empty plastic bags, plastic overwrap and foam packaging. The test will be conducted in a controlled environment in order to assess the systems that are needed to collect, process and market these materials, according to the requirements of the regulation.  This is a first-of-its-kind test in B.C. and we are excited that our City has been asked to participate in the test recycling project,” Mayor Peter Fassbender announced today.

For the duration of the test, from Tuesday, February 7 through Friday, April 27, householders in the test areas will collect plastic bags, plastic overwrap (clear wrap used for large packages of bathroom tissue, paper towels, cases of beverages, etc.) and foam containers and packaging for recycling instead of disposing of these materials in the garbage. They willl be asked to put empty plastic bags and overwrap into a blue, see-through recycling bag and empty foam containers and packaging into a second recycling bag. When a bag is full, they’ll set it out with their regular recycling.  Emterra Environmental will collect the special recycling bags along with the regular recyclables to test various aspects of collecting and processing the materials.

Robbery on the 320 Surrey Central

When I got on the bus at Guildford Town Centre heading towards Surrey Central yesterday afternoon, I never expected to see someone get robbed one-foot in front of me.

Somewhere after going past the high-voltage power lines on 104th Avenue, two white young-adult males and their “girlfriends” got on the bus. These are the kind of people that don’t pay their transit fare. They proceeded to the back of the bus and on the way smacked into another women full-force. They joked about how funny it was to hurt her. Next they set their eyes on the only black person on the bus. I don’t think that it is any coincidence that they targeted a minority. Anyway, they asked the teen if he had an iPod/iPhone because they saw his headphones. After threatening the teenager, they told him that he better hand over his Blackberry. The teen complied. There were about 10 people in the back of the bus that saw this go down. Next, they asked him to empty out his pockets and proceeded to steel his transit tickets. It was at this time that the wannabe thugs asked me if I had anything to give them. I said no and they didn’t bug me after that. They proceeded to rummage through the teen’s backpack.

When the bus was nearing Surrey Central, and I got off and called 911. The teen had a friend with him who also called 911. The good news is that the police caught the bullies and they are appearing in court today. The RCMP is recommending a charge of robbery and I hope the Crown agrees. Robbery is classified as a violent crime. The whole incident left me a bit rattled for a number of reasons.

First, I was almost the victim of crime yesterday. I’ve had my house broken into and (when I had a car) my car broken into in the past. I got over those pretty fast, but there is nothing quit as scary as someone threatening you. I learned yesterday that I’m a runner, not a fighter.

Second, the bullies weren’t trying to steal from the teen because they wanted an iPhone. They stole from him to degrade and humiliate. That was probably the most shocking thing for me. What kind of person gets off humiliating someone half their size?

Third, I was the only 3rd party (beside the teen’s friend) that saw the crime, called 911, went to the RCMP, and gave a statement. What kind of society do we live in when people turn a blind eye to bullying?

Finally, this happened around 4:30pm on a busy bus route on a Sunday! I’ve taking transit full-time for about 5 years in the South of Fraser. I’ve seen stupid things at night on the bus, but I’ve never anything like this. It was a braze crime given the fact that it was committed in broad daylight and in front of so many people. Yesterday's crime got me thinking about how TransLink could make buses safer.

TransLink is in the process of installing camera on all their buses. This is a good thing and helps put people in jail after the fact. But when a crime is taking place, cameras do nothing. When I saw the teen getting robbed yesterday I wanted to do something fast, but I didn’t want to become the next crime statistic in Surrey. It takes about 30 seconds from the time you call 911, to the time you get to Surrey dispatch. That is enough time for your phone to be removed from your person by a criminal. There needs to be a way to silently alert police or TransLink to the fact that I crime is taking place on a bus. I didn't feel safe going to the bus driver. In this day and age, you should be able to text the police or something.

The second thing I noticed is that wannabe thugs don’t pay their transit fare. While TransLink inspects fares all the time on SkyTrain, I can only remember a couple of times that I’ve ever been checked for a fare on a bus in Surrey. There needs to be better fare enforcement on the bus because right now I don’t think TransLink is taking fare evasion on buses in Surrey seriously.

Yesterday was a pretty scary day for me, but I’m not going to stop taking transit or going to Surrey. Considering that I take thousands of transit trips every year, statically transit is still the safest form of transportation. TransLink does need to provide better security on buses in Surrey, does need to implement a silent alert system, and does need to enforce fare payment on its buses. I hope this post does not fall on deaf ears.

Township Update - ALR Subdivision and Brookswood Merchants Association

One of the problems with using the Agricultural Land Reserve as an urban growth boundary is that there is some land in the ALR that probably shouldn’t be. This is why I support Metro Vancouver’s new urban growth boundary. Speaking about the ALR, at the Monday afternoon Township of Langley council meeting two sub-divisions in the ALR where waiting for endorsement.

1. Provincial Agricultural Land Commission
Application No. 100223 (Holscher)
Report 12-01
File CD 07-02-0033
Recommendation that Council advise the Agricultural Land Commission that the subdivision application submitted by Gordon and Ingrid Holscher for property located at 759 - 204 Street, within the Agricultural Land Reserve is supported as it complies with the minimum lot size requirements of the Small Farms/Country Estates designation of the Rural Plan and Township Zoning Bylaw, subject to compliance with the requirements of the Agricultural Land Commission, and at time of subdivision, the Township of Langley’s Subdivision and Development Servicing Bylaw.

2. Provincial Agricultural Land Commission
Application No. 100221 (Riley)
Report 12-02
File CD 12-06-0013
Recommendation that Council advise the Agricultural Land Commission that the subdivision application submitted by Peter and Lillian Riley for property located at 21980 – 100 Avenue, within the Agricultural Land Reserve is supported as it complies with the minimum lot size requirements of the Small Farms/Country Estates designation of the Rural Plan and Township Zoning Bylaw, subject to compliance with the requirements of the Agricultural Land Commission, and at time of subdivision, the Township of Langley’s Subdivision and Development Servicing Bylaw.

The Township of Langley has a zone called “Small Farms/Country Estates” which is basically the ultimate suburban zoning. The zoning is for “hobby farms” (wink, wink) on lots around the 4 acres mark. On the bright side, it does provide for an urban/rural interface.

Langley's Rural Plan. Dark green is Small Farms/Country Estates zone. Click image to enlarge.

In other news, it looks like the Brookswood Merchants Association is looking to improve their community. In May of last year, a 748 person petition was signed by residents wanting safety improvement around 40A Avenue and 200B Street. In response, the Township installed a painted walkways, installed new way finding, painted a yellow line on the road, and will do some minor street repair this spring. It looks like the Brookswood Merchants Association is happy with these changes, but is now looking for sidewalks, streetlights, and underground utilities. I know that the Township is about to start the process of updating the community plan for Brookswood, but I wonder if the merchants can wait that long. Let’s hope they don’t pull a “City of Langley” and start their own municipality!