From Moscow to South Langley: Speaking to the Brookswood Fernridge Community March 27th, 2019

Earlier this year, I received an invitation from a Langley resident to see if I would be prepared to be a guest speaker at a general meeting of the Brookswood Fernridge community association in March.   It has recently been the recipient of a new community plan and the residents are about to enter the neighbourhood planning process for three new neighbourhoods.

I was told that many in the community are concerned about the type of housing that will be built in future developments and what they can do to ensure older residents who are downsizing will have housing options other than three level townhouses which, while rare in Vancouver, are often built in Richmond and south of the Fraser. The local community also wants to see different housing options available for both present and future  residents in these new communities.

Flattery will get you everywhere. The invitation went on to say my interest in the development of alternative forms of housing, including co-housing, cooperative housing, small houses etc are forward thinking and would be of great interest to the residents of our community. So, of course, I said yes!

I spent yesterday preparing my presentation. While Langley is a long way from Moscow, (which was featured in my last blogpost, and where I was last invited to talk about alternative housing choices), I was equally conscious of the need to be sensitive to the local sentiments as I was when I prepared my Moscow lecture for Strelka.

Ironically, as I was preparing my talk, I received an email from a former building inspector who is a member of the community who had recently written to me about the so-called Speculation Tax following one of my Vancouver Courier rants. 

He wanted to alert me to the sentiments of the local community. 

"You should be aware that there is a lot of community aversion to small compact type housing. The existing built part of Brookswood is mostly 10,000 sf lots and remain on septic tank/fields. The Willoughby area to the north (between Langley City and the freeway) is under fairly rapid development and the Brookswood crowd is aghast at the small lots and resulting parking problems etc. that can be expected. He noted that the compact Clayton Heights Area on the adjacent Surrey side has become an undesirable place to live.(Coincidentally, I previously worked a little bit with Patrick Condon on the early Clayton Heights design charrette and had already included a Clayton Heights slide in my presentation, knowing that it would come up as a concern.)

He raised the issue of whether compact housing should be the preferred form of housing in order to save the existing large conifer trees, or whether new trees can and should be planted  that are more in scale with the new housing.

So, armed with my computer and powerpoint presentation, I will set off for Langley tomorrow. I have some images that I know will appeal to many, thanks to the excellent work of Ross Chapin and his Pocket Neighbourhood approach to planning. https://rosschapin.com/projects/pocket-neighborhoods/

I also intend to talk about laneway and coach houses, duplex and semi-detached, zero-lotline detached housing and fee-simple rowhouses. I will also present examples of small apartment buildings that can be integrated within low density neighbourhoods.

I plan to talk about the need for corner stores, and how best to provide adequate transportation as the community grows.

If you live in the Brookswood Fernridge community, or other nearby communties undergoing redevelopment, I hope you will come out. The meeting will be held in the community room of the South Langley Church, 20098 22nd Avenue, Langley, from 7 till 9. 

 Below is a recent newspaper article by Heather Colpitts regarding the talk from the Langley Advance Times.

What could housing look like in the future in Brookswood and Fernridge?

The Brookswood-Fernridge Community Association wants to talk to residents about the issue and is inviting residents to a public meeting at 7 p.m. on March 27.
“Join us at our public meeting to learn more about cluster housing, cooperative housing, co-housing, seniors housing, small houses, etc. and how these can provide housing diversity and impact affordability and livability within a community,” said association representative Wayne Crossen.
The association wants to solicit resident input ahead of the recently started Brookswood-Fernridge neighbourhood planning process so that housing alternatives are examined and integrated into the neighbourhood planning.
Attending the meeting will be Michael Geller. He is a Vancouver-based architect, planner, real estate consultant and property developer with four decades in the public, private and institutional sectors. He’s been involved in a number of specialized development projects for cooperative, non-profit, public housing, social housing, institutional construction and more. He currently serves as President of Michael Geller & Associates, as adjunct Faculty for the Centre for Sustainable Community Development, Simon Fraser University. The meeting happens at the South Langley Community Church, 20098 22nd Ave.