Tuesday - Feb. 11, 2025 - Massive development pitched for Popkum

☀ High 0C

Good morning!

Last fall, I was invited to a conference out east. The conference was convened by two major non-profits in part to facilitate a study about how to rebuild local news across this country. Throughout the conference, the paper’s authors asked journalists like myself what might help restore local news to the important position it once played in communities.

I entered the conference skeptical that anything productive could actually come of it. But I was converted, in part because it provided a great opportunity to learn from my colleagues, and in part because everyone was very realistic about the challenges facing our industry. The Public Policy Forum’s report has now been published and you can read it here. It’s better and more practical than I had expected.

“Solutions will involve us all,” the study concludes. "Governments need to channel some of their advertising dollars to small communities; they need to give them a chance to rally support for news organizations threatened with closure; and they need to allow businesses an enhanced ability to support more outlets of their own choosing. Philanthropists must step up community foundation engagement, raising their gaze from single-issue funding to a more wholistic understanding of journalism’s role in driving awareness and accountability. Together, government and the philanthropic sector will need to create a new, independent and sustainably financed organization that helps train the next generation of local journalists—both in the business of journalism and fundraising.”

But the study notes that onus also falls on publications and journalists themselves. It points to several outlets that have found success by connecting with their communities in new ways.

“Most importantly, news entrepreneurs must push to find new ways to identify opportunities and better serve their local communities, using whatever fresh delivery systems, old-style reportage and creative funding models they can muster to get reliable information flowing.”

Thank you for subscribing to our little outlet. If you’re an FVC Insider Member or an advertiser, you’re doing your part. If you’re not, please do consider paying for the journalism that you consume. We think journalism is necessary for communities to be stable vibrant places. But it doesn’t happen on its own.

– Tyler

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Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope 

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.

NEWS

Non-profit hopes to buy lakefront properties

If a conservation group has its way, the eastern shore of Lake Errock will remain densely forested and undeveloped into perpetuity.

The Nature Trust of BC recently announced that it was raising money to buy 36 acres of land near Lake Errock. Although the trust didn’t initially specify where the land was located, in an email to The Current, the trust confirmed that the specific properties are on the eastern shore of Lake Errock, opposite from the community’s homes.

• Today, Tyler writes about the latest purchase of land by a conservation non-profit, and explains why most new conservation areas are established by non-profits rather than governments.

Related

Need to Know

🚨 A man died shortly after being arrested by Abbotsford police officers in Mission [CTV]

💰 Langley City is considering a 10.5% tax increase thanks to wastewater cost overruns [Langley Advance Times]

🍞 Mission Mounties seized guns and a silencer after two teens allegedly used fake $100 bills (labelled ‘prop money’) at a grocery store [Mission Record]

🥾 Explorer John Dunn will speak Thursday at Aldergrove’s library [Aldergrove Star]

👉 A truck careened onto the steps of Chilliwack’s courthouse after a two-vehicle crash [Chilliwack Progress]

🗳 Hope Coun. Zachary Wells has resigned, triggering a by-election [Hope Standard]

💡 Explore KPU's Health programs! Learn about nursing, natural medicine, and other career paths with our free info sessions. Discover options for your future in healthcare.*

🏡 Stattonrock Homes: BC’s leader in custom homes, renovations, and manufactured builds. Discover a better way to build—get in touch today!*

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The Agenda

Proposed development could bring 600 more people to Popkum

A developer hopes to build more than 250 homes on a 15-hectare property in Popkum, on the City of Chilliwack’s eastern border.

Norah Properties has applied to build 83 single-family houses, each of which would have a secondary suite attached, just north of Bridal Falls. The development would also include 99 townhomes, a large lot for an RV storage business, and a small park. If built out, the development would be home to more than 600 people—about one-third of the current population of the Fraser Valley Regional District’s Area D, in which the project is located.

To proceed, the developer needs the FVRD’s board to sign off on the creation of a new official community plan and zone for the area. The proposal is new and the next step is a public information meeting in the area. In a preliminary report, FVRD staff said the development’s townhomes would be a “departure” from building in the region’s rural electoral areas, but that the proposal makes sense given the scarcity of land and demand for new homes.

You can read the staff report here. The proposed layout of the development can be viewed here.

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