How to follow development applications in Langley

Somebody puts up a sign, or a notice lands in your mailbox, and suddenly you’re wondering what’s going in down the street. Both Langleys publish this information. They just do it in different places. If you don’t know which one your street belongs to, start with City vs. Township.

Township of Langley

The Township’s Development Activity page has two main tools:

• The map. It’s interactive. You can search by project number, address or community, or zoom in to find projects outlined in red. Each one links to the portal. Projects stay on the map for a year after they’re finished.
• The portal. It’s a searchable list of active and completed applications going back to 2012. Each project page shows drawings, documents, contacts and progress.

The Township says applications are posted within about three weeks of being accepted. If you create a free MyTownship account, you can sign up for email alerts on a particular application, on every application in a community, or on future applications by type or neighbourhood. The alerts cover new submissions, big resubmissions and items scheduled for council.

Project folders have letter codes you’ll see in the portal: DP is a development permit, DV a development variance permit, RZ a rezoning, SA a subdivision, and TU a temporary use permit, among others.

For the zoning and community plans behind a project, the Township also offers a mapping tool called GeoSource, which it says is for reference only.

Having your say in the Township

Rezonings and some other applications go to a public hearing. You can register to speak online until 6:00 pm on the day of the hearing, or sign up in person after that. You can also write to legservicesinfo@tol.ca or to Legislative Services at 20338 - 65 Avenue, up to and during the hearing. Council can’t accept any more input once a hearing closes, so don’t wait. The Township’s development applications page doesn’t spell out how to comment before a hearing, so for that, ask staff at cdinfo@tol.ca.

City of Langley

The City’s Development Application Guide walks through the steps. In short: the applicant talks with Planning, submits the application, and staff from Planning, Building, Engineering and Fire-Rescue review it. The Advisory Design Panel, which includes resident representatives, gives advice on how it looks. For a rezoning, council then gives first and second readings, holds a public hearing, and later considers third reading and final adoption. The guide calls the public hearing the main point for public input.

The City posts notices in its news section. One example asked for written input by a set deadline, by email to councilmeetings@langleycity.ca or by mail to the Deputy Corporate Officer at City Hall, and listed where the documents could be viewed. Each notice sets its own deadline, so read the one for your project. The City also runs Let’s Chat Langley City, an online site where bigger planning projects (the zoning bylaw update, for example) collect feedback. You need a free account to take part.

For questions about a specific application, contact Planning at planning@langleycity.ca or 604.514.2830.

A few tips

• Read the notice for dates first. Hearings and written-input windows are short.
• Be specific. “The driveway is on a blind corner” helps more than “too many buildings”.

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