Tuesday - April 8, 2025 - Trailers to townhomes?

🌧 High 9C | Local forecast

Good morning!

Sometimes I can rattle off a newsletter introduction in 90 seconds or so. But after an hour of struggle, I’m still finding it hard to sum up just quite what I learned in a soccer coaching workshop on Saturday. The session was so mind-bending, it seems to have melted my brain. (Hence the very mixed metaphor.)

It’s not that I learned a lot about how to be a coach, although I did. But it went further than that, shining a light on how we process information and how we can use our own experiences to better understand how to communicate, educate, and inform. All of which gets at the heart of editing this publication and writing new stories.

So here’s one thing we learned about introducing new ideas to people: start simple and add complexity. Now that I write it, it’s funny that I think that is a big revelation, because that motto is the essence of what journalists know as the inverted pyramid story structure. Apparently you can use inverted pyramid style to coach kids to play soccer. Hence the melted brain.

– Tyler

News

Data: Population growth accelerates in Abbotsford

Langley continues to be one of the fastest-growing communities in all of Canada.

Both Langley City and Langley Township rank among Canada’s 10 fastest-growing cities since 2020, according to The Current’s analysis of new population estimates from Statistics Canada.

The population of both municipalities has grown by nearly 20% since 2020. That is nearly double the provincial growth rate. Further east in the valley, growth has been relatively modest despite the seemingly rapid pace of change.

Since 2020, Abbotsford’s population has increased by 10%—roughly in line with the BC average. Chilliwack and Mission have lagged behind, trailing all but a handful of municipalities with more than 30,000 people over the last four years.

• Today, Tyler again breaks down population growth rates, including numbers suggesting that Chilliwack is adding fewer new residents than previously thought.

Related

Need to Know

🚔 A series of social media posts threatened acts of violence at schools in Langley and Abbotsford [CityNews]

📞 Those threats followed a series of ‘swatting’ hoax calls intended to trigger large police responses to places where violence was supposedly taking place [CBC]

🌷 Weather-related damage has forced the cancellation of the Botanica Flower Festival in Chilliwack [Chilliwack Progress]

✈ Two people—a student pilot and an instructor—were killed in a plane crash Saturday near Chilliwack Lake [Abbotsford News]

🚚 Chilliwack residents can register to have large items picked up for disposal next week [City of Chilliwack]

🚧 Walls are being erected for Agassiz’s new recreation centre and pool [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

👉 The province is ending a program that sent BC cancer patients to Bellingham for treatment [Global BC]

🗳 Election 2025

The federal election campaign continues until election day on Monday, April 28. Advance voting will take place over the Easter weekend, from Friday, April 18 to Monday, April 21. Find everything you need to know—including where to vote—by visiting one of our local election hubs:

Chilliwack, Hope, and the Eastern Valley | Abbotsford and Mission | Langley

The latest

👉 The Mission Chamber of Commerce is hosting an all-candidates forum today at 7pm for candidates in the Mission-Matsqui-Abbotsford riding; the meeting takes place at the Best Western Conference Centre [Mission Chamber] / The meeting will be streamed live (and available for later viewing) here / You can submit questions to candidates by clicking here and entering code Fedelect2025 at the top of the screen.

SPONSORED BY VANCOUVER CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL

Blossom Block Party - new event

A one-day block party in the heart of Downtown Vancouver, at Bentall Centre’s open-air Dunsmuir Patio took place on April 5. Created in partnership with Public Disco and supported by Bentall Centre.

This free, all ages celebration featured DJs playing feel good dance music, a pop-up bar, dance performances, kids activities, snacks and social spaces.  

Plan your visit today!

The Agenda

Townhomes likely to replace Chilliwack trailer park

The end may be near for a large Chilliwack mobile home park.

Chilliwack council will vote today on whether to allow local developer Westbow to build 143 townhomes on a piece of land currently occupied by the Fraser Village Mobile Home Park. Four years ago, Westbow bought the 57-unit park just north of Townsend Park. Although Westbow said when it purchased the land that it didn’t have immediate plans to redevelop the property, the sale triggered worries among residents—who own their trailers but lease their land—that they would be forced from the park. (You can read our story from 2022 here.)

The company has now applied to the city for rezoning to allow it to build a new townhouse complex on the site. Council will vote Tuesday on whether to approve that application.

Provincial laws require mobile home park redevelopers to give evicted tenants at least one year’s notice and at least $20,000. Over the last two years, Westbow has been buying trailers from residents at their BC Assessment value. (Values range from $50,000 to $250,000.) Westbow has yet to buy 10 of the 57 units in the park. According to city staff, Westbow plans to issue notices once a development permit is issued.

Although many cities have policies requiring developers to compensate and assist tenants who are evicted from rental homes set for demolition, Chilliwack has no rules. In their report to council, staff say that Westbow has generally followed steps required of developers in other communities where such policies exist. Among other things, the company has promised to kick in a free “accessibility” package valued at $25,000 for residents who buy a unit in the new townhome complex.

Staff write that the city could create its own rental redevelopment rules if council decides they are needed. During the 2022 election campaign, The Current asked candidates whether the city needed a rental protection policy. All those who responded to the question, including a majority of today’s council (Jason Lum, Harv Westeringh, Jeff Shields, Chris Kloot, and Bud Mercer), agreed a redevelopment policy was needed. Mayor Ken Popove didn’t take the survey; Nicole Huitema Read did not respond to the short-form question.

Share

You can share this newsletter by forwarding it or copy and pasting this link—https://fvcurrent.com/p/april-8-2025/—into a social media post.

🔓️ Become a Current Insider and get full access to this newsletter. Every Tuesday, members get exclusive information on events, food and drink, and local deals.

You’ll also get our weekly behind-the-scenes newsletter and roundup on Saturday. Most of all, your contribution will allow us to keep producing all the great journalism you already know and love.

Catch up

That’s it!

Thanks for reading Fraser Valley Current today ♥️ 

If you found something useful, consider forwarding this newsletter to another local.