Update: Brookswood OCP Draft Open House

On May 16th, the Township of Langley hosted an open house at the George Preston Rec Centre to showcase the draft OCP for Brookswood-Fernridge. The plan provides a high-level development guide for the undeveloped area of Brookswood-Fernridge with a variety of densities centred around two higher density nodes on 200 Street at 32nd and 24th Avenue, and cascading down towards the agricultural land reserve to the East.

The key take-aways from the open house are as follows:

Neighbourhood Plans Required Prior to Future Development

The draft OCP outlines 4 new sub-neighbourhoods for Brookswood-Fernridge: Booth, Fernridge, Rinn and Glennwood. A neighbourhood plan will need to be developed and adopted for each of these neighbourhoods prior to future property rezoning or development.

Schools & Detention Ponds Likely a Prerequisite for Development

As is the case in other neighbourhoods of the Township of Langley, the future elementary school/park sites and the necessary detention ponds are prerequisites for development in their respective areas. The draft Brookswood OCP identifies 5 new elementary schools, 1 new secondary school, 1 new middle school and 4 new detention ponds.

Reduction in Density on East Perimeter of Plan

While the 1987 OCP designates a large portion of the Brookswood-Fernridge plan area as single family residential with minimum lot sizes of 7,000 square feet, there is a significant portion of the new draft plan which increases the minimum lot size to 10,000 square feet, lowering the density. It’s worth noting that lower density does not necessarily result in a reduction of land value. According to open house moderators, this was a common concern among attendees. Give us a call if you’d like to explore this point further.

Some In-Process Applications May Be Stalled

There are several development applications in the area which have been given 3rd Reading and securing the required detention ponds for the catchment area has been added as a condition of the application receiving final reading. There are some applications which may be stalled until the land can be acquired and dedicated for the detention pond.

Next Steps

Feedback from this open house will allow Township planning staff and consultants to fine tune the draft plan in preparation of a presentation to Council. Adoption, if all goes as scheduled, is anticipated to occur in 2 to 3 months.

A complete copy of the draft plan can be found in the planning departments report to council HERE should you be interested in diving deeper into the detail.