Locals voicing support and opposition turned out at a Thursday night open house to check out options for rezoning a strip of Fraser Highway for industrial uses in Langley Township.
The Fraser Highway Employment Lands proposal could broadly rezone some of the lands along Fraser Highway, starting from around 228 Street in the west, to just past 240 Street in the east, to allow more industrial development.
There is a relative shortage of industrial land in the Lower Mainland, with major industrial areas that once clustered in Vancouver having been rezoned to allow the construction of malls and condo towers for the past several decades.
That has led industrial land to move out to the suburbs, including areas like Langley's Gloucester Industrial Park north of Aldergrove, and the South Campbell Heights developments in South Surrey just west of the Langley municipal border.
The proposed Fraser Highway Employment Lands are outside of the ALR, and currently have a variety of zonings, including rural, residential, and a scattering that are already zoned for industrial use. There are some shops and light industrial businesses along that stretch of the highway, but there are also a considerable number of private homes, and the Westfield Courts mobile home park near 232 Street.
At the Jan. 30 open house in the Church in the Valley, the Township offered three possible scenarios.
Option 1 would simply be a blanket rezoning of all lands to industrial uses, including residential lands, hobby farms, the mobile home park, and existing commercial and institutional sites.
Option 2 would still rezone most of the land to industrial, but would zone Westfield Courts for mobile home park use, a chunk of land east of 232 Street would remain residential, and several parcels would remain commercial or institutional.
Option 3 would again rezone almost all the land it affected industrial, including Westfield Courts, but would reduce the total size of the rezoned area, leaving some current rural lots unaffected, including lands along 232 Street around 46 Avenue, as well as at the east end near 240 Street.
There were some residents who expressed vigorous opposition to the plan, including Wayne van Beek, who carried a small sign in protest.
"We are against having the properties on Old Yale Road, for example," van Beek said.
The local resident said he and many of his neighbours bought property in the area thinking it would remain residential and have built new homes there. Now they face the possibility of staying and having industrial developments built next door, or having to sell and leave.
"We could have Jim's Fish Plant right next door to our homes," van Beek said.
Others with van Beek's group, which is organizing via Facebook, said there's been no assessment of how much industrial land the Township actually needs.
"It's being forced onto us," said Danielle Macey.
"The consultation with neighbours who are directly affected is not happening," said Lauren Chalus.
Stickers and Post-it notes on the boards indicated that a considerable number of people were concerned about residential issues, but there were also those who were interested in seeing more industrial land created.
Scott Waddle of Precision Auto said he was in favour of more industrial development in the area.
"But I don't blame people who don't want this next door to their house," he said.
Industrial land provides good-paying jobs, Waddle said. His current location is within the employment lands area, and he said when Precision Auto was looking for a site to buy, it was extremely difficult to find anything.
The Township council will consider the input from Thursday's open house as it makes its plans. Any proposed changes to land use will also have to go through Metro Vancouver, which is expected to take up to six months, followed by a final land use plan being debated by the council.