March 24, 2023 edition - Abbotsford prepares for one last sprawl

Fort Langley Jazz and Arts Festival

Friday March 24, 2023 | Today: 🌧 High 6C, Low 3C | 7-day forecast

Good morning, there!

I’m listening to this podcast called Wild Boys about a starving teen and his older brother who found their way to Vernon and told people concerned about their health that they had lived their lives isolated from society in the bush. It’s a great listen but of particular interest because the host grew up in Vernon at the time of the story and…so did I. We didn’t cross paths, that I know of, but it’s fascinating to hear another person describe your hometown through a similar, and yet very different, perspective. I imagine that’s the case across the valley too. You can find the podcast here if you want to give it a listen. (It's also available on a range of other podcast apps.)

Meanwhile, for the last time this week: we have more than 30,000 readers, but could still use one or 10 more advertisers to reach those people while helping us produce The Current. Form here. Email here. Help us out by clicking one or the other!

Tyler Olsen
NEWS

One last sprawl hits one final hurdle

Abbotsford Council was set to vote next week on the controversial McKee Peak plan. Now it won’t, after the city discovered what it called a ‘procedural error’ that would require it to repeat the entire council process in order to adopt the plan. The city issued a release Thursday, which you can read here.

The decision, though, comes after a public hearing in which a Semá:th First Nation official declared that the city had failed in its duty to consult with the First Nation. Richard Hall, the Semá:th director of governance and natural resources, said he had only had two meetings with planners early in 2022 and had not discussed the matter with city hall since then. You can watch Hall’s comments here.

“This is the traditional territory of the Sema:th peoples,” he said. Hall (who casually noted that he is also a practicing lawyer) pointed out that municipalities are bound by provincial legislation governing how cities must consult First Nations. “It’s the responsibility of every municipality in the province to respect both UNDRIP and DRIPA. From Semá:th’s perspective that has not happened in this case in any shape or form. For traditional territory developments to take place, First Nations need to have a collaborative decision-making role going forward, and that’s not what is happening here.”

Hall said Semá:th and the city have collaborated well on a variety of other projects, including those regarding river bank stabilization and flood mitigation measures, and suggested they could work together on the McKee matter. But he urged the city to defer any future decision. Whether or not Hall’s comments prompted the rescinding of the plan may be clearer on Monday, when council will discuss what comes next. But the city will be aware that only a couple years ago, Semá:th sued it for a lack of consultation when it moved to expropriate land next to a burial ground.

The consultation concerns are only the latest in a series of hurdles faced by a plan with plenty of opponents and relatively little enthusiastic support. Which prompts the question: why does the plan exists in the first place? The answer to that requires diving into a decades-old promise, a compromise made in 2016, and a balancing act by recreational users who love trails built on private property.

• • • • •

Sprawl was out. Infill was in.

It was 2015 and anyone loitering at Abbotsford City Hall would likely hear a recurring theme: building thousands of family homes on a hillside miles from the city’s centre is inefficient, expensive, and a bad way to grow.

Abbotsford needed to rethink how it grew. And so it did, hiring planners, striking committees, consulting with the public over and over again. They called the process “Abbotsforward,” and the city eventually came up with a new plan focused on ending Abbotsford’s reliance on sprawl. Everybody seemed to love it.

Nobody really talked (in public at least) about the fact that the plan contained one element largely at odds with everything that surrounded it. That piece—one last recipe for one last sprawl—would lead to the McKee Peak Neighbourhood Plan and a raging debate about the city’s growth and evolution.

That debate, inevitably, would prompt simple but hard-to-answer questions like: What, exactly, is the point of all this? And how will the average resident today benefit from more suburbs on Sumas Mountain?

To answer those questions, you need to go back even further, to the years after the formation of the City of Abbotsford—the municipality, not the geographical place—when one generation of city officials made a decision that those two decades later would decide was impossible to reverse. You also need to figure out who owns what.

Related story

Need to know

🏢 A condo developer who defrauded Langley residents hasn’t been convicted in Canada (but is imprisoned in the states for similar crimes) [Langley Advance Times]

👉️ A Chilliwack non-profit will be able to offer counselling and therapy to those affected by sexual misconduct in the military community [Fraser Valley News]

🚨 Chilliwack RCMP is asking for the public’s help identifying a woman who stole from several ATMs [RCMP]

👉️ A teenage burn survivor from Chilliwack is one of the “spokeskids” for a BC Children’s Hospital fundraiser [Chilliwack Progress]

➡️ Chilliwack non-profits received provincial funding for environmental and public-safety focused initiatives [Chilliwack Progress]

🚔️ Another scam targeting seniors resulted in a $1,500 theft in Mission [Mission Record]

👩‍⚕️ The Sts’ailes First Nation’s upcoming primary care centre will be staffed with both traditional healers and health practitioners [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

🐹 BC doubled the number of seats it subsidizes in Saskatchewan’s vet school last year; that change was made permanent yesterday [Province of BC]

The Agenda

Non-farm use film application approved by Langley Township council

Langley Township council have given the green light for a non-farm use application to allow for filming on two properties. But before cameras can start rolling, the Agricultural Land Commission must give its blessing.

In 2021, council agreed to participate in a two-year pilot program with the ALC and Creative BC to temporarily permit non-farm uses for filming on agriculturally zoned properties in the Agricultural Land Reserve for up to 60 days each year.

The application for the two township properties (10221 216 St. and 21216 102B Ave.) will now be submitted to the commission, which will make the final decision.

Chilliwack pre-emptively bans cannabis coffee shops

Nibbling on a pot brownie in a cafe is a long way off for Chilliwack residents.

Though cannabis businesses that allow onsite use aren’t legal in BC yet, Chilliwack city council moved to ban them while the province considers whether or not to green-light the businesses. If the province legalizes the operations, they won’t be able to set up shop within the city.

A cannabis consumption space is any business, restaurant, event, or other establishment that sells cannabis and allows its use onsite—like how a bar serves and allows the use of alcohol.

The city cites nuisances from smoking and vaping, enforcement challenges, and fire risk as reasons for the decision. (It doesn’t address other methods of cannabis consumption.) Staff said the city might consider reversing its ban when drug-affected driving, co-use of alcohol and cannabis, and nuisance issues from the smoke are adequately addressed by the province.

No end in sight for Fraser Valley transit strike

No talks are currently scheduled between Fraser Valley bus drivers and their employer as of yesterday afternoon, according to the union representing drivers.

The strike has put the brakes on almost every bus route in the Fraser Valley (Handydart services for essential appointments only continue). With no meeting date set to continue negotiations, there is no end in sight to the work stoppage.

The drivers, employed by First Transit (an American company contracted to run buses by BC Transit) have been on a full-fledged strike since Monday. Job action has been ongoing for months as negotiations for higher wages and a pension for drivers continued.

SPONSORED POST

TOGETHER WITH FORT LANGLEY JAZZ AND ARTS FESTIVAL

Jazz Fest announces headline line-up and early bird tickets for Cool Blues Show

The Odlum Brown Fort Langley Jazz and Arts Festival has announced the headlining acts for its 2023 blues event, the Cool Blues Show!

Experience Grammy-nominated Ruthie Foster Band, Juno winner Crystal Shawanda, Five Alarm Funk, The Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer, My Son The Hurricane, Silent Partners, among others.

The Cool Blues Show offers two nights of non-stop unforgettable blues performances on two outdoor stages at Fort Langley Park on Friday, Jul. 21, and Saturday, Jul. 22. The event is all ages!

Music fans are encouraged to take advantage of early bird weekend passes that are available until Apr. 30.

Around town

THIS WEEK

🌷 Friends of Camp and Hope Sloughs are hosting habitat restoration planting at Corbould Park on Saturday from 10am until about 2pm.

👉️ The Langley Chapter of Municipal Pension Retiree's Association is hosting its quarterly meeting on March 27 at 1:30pm at Douglas Recreation Center. A free health and fitness presentation will follow the meeting. For more information email [email protected]

COMING UP

🌸 The Blooming With Gifts Craft Market will be held April 22 from 10am to 4pm at Evergreen Hall in Chilliwack. More information online.

Have an event to tell us about? Fill out this form to have it highlighted in Around Town.

Catch up

Want to promote your business to 30,000+ engaged locals?

Have a tip? Email us

Join the conversation

or to participate.