Tuesday - Oct. 29, 2024 - Township looks to industry for rural land

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Good morning!

I have mixed feelings about journalism awards. They are a crapshoot and obscure our industry's struggles, but who am I kidding: I get very excited when we are named a finalist for an award. The nice-guy diplomatic explanation is that it's very nice to have one's work acknowledged blah blah blah; really, I am just very competitive and awards feed my ego.

It's crass to brag. But it's deeply human to want to make sure that everybody remembers your own accomplishments. It's also beneficial—and potentially necessary—if you're running a business or media organization. We are in constant competition for readers' eyes, time, and subscription dollars and we need to constantly prove our worth and value. Winning awards that tend to be dominated by large media organizations helps make that case. Our National Newspaper Award is special. So is the Jack Webster Award we won in 2022. Just being named a finalist (as we were at the NNAs in 2023) is worth celebrating. Last night, we were at this year's Jack Webster Awards to see if we got another trophy—we were a finalist for our coverage of the Black Press collapse.

And we won. The irony of that story being recognized at an awards event is not lost on me. It was, in part, an investigation into my own career, and the publications that had shaped my path in journalism. I know too well that awards won't stop media organizations from closing or collapsing. Only readers can do that. But adding to our awards shelf doesn't hurt, even if it forces us to try to proclaim our excellence in a faux-humble, Canadian way, when we just want to crassly brag.

– Tyler

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Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope (We have had to temporarily change our forecast links to the Weather Network due to a technical error.)

🚘 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

Mill Lake, parks, the Nooksack, and more: an interview with Abbotsford’s mayor

Abbotsford Mayor Ross Siemens said the future of Mill Lake boardwalk may depend on agreements with shoreline property owners. 📷 City of Abbotsford; Tyler Olsen

The fate of Mill Lake’s beloved boardwalk still hangs in the air.

In a wide-ranging interview with Abbotsford Mayor Ross Siemens to mark the midway point of his first term in office, we asked about the boardwalk, the state of Sumas Prairie negotiations, local parks, and the impact of provincial development rules on the city’s historic downtown.

Siemens said the federal government may need to step in to broker an international agreement to deal with the Nooksack River’s potential flooding. He also said that new provincial rules that allow for increased density in areas surrounding transit hubs could eventually apply to downtown Abbotsford once the area’s new Montrose bus exchange opens.

Related

Need to Know

🔎 Langley RCMP are still looking for missing 82-year-old Jane Whitehouse; her vehicle was found in Agassiz on Sunday [Aldergrove Star]

⏳ Langley Township is holding off on final approvals to bring in more density until council knows which BC party will form government; the township had previously asked for extensions to implement BC’s new housing rules, but was denied [Langley Advance Times]

🥇 A 16-year-old Abbotsford hip hop dancer helped secure a world championship for Canada at the ‘Olympics of dance’ earlier this month [Abbotsford News]

🚗 A Chilliwack car enthusiast is warning others to be wary of where they park, after his vehicle was vandalized on Chilliwack Lake Road [Chilliwack Progress]

🐶 Agassiz search and rescue saved a dog that had fallen into the Chehalis River on Friday evening [Agassiz Harrison Observer]

👐🏽 Support BC Cancer Foundation in raising funds to equip the new BC Cancer centre in Surrey. Your donations will help the centre deliver lifer-saving treatment closer to home.*

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The Agenda

A chunk of land surrounding Fraser Highway in Langley could become an industrial hub for the community. 📸 Township of Langley

Township plots industrial development in rural area

The Township of Langley is considering how it will turn a mostly rural and residential area along Fraser Highway into a new hub of industrial activity.

The Township wants to allow a range of industrial uses on a large pie-shaped chunk of land along Fraser Highway and between 240 and 228 Street. You can see the precise location, along with other information, here. The land is surrounded by, but not included within, the Agricultural Land Reserve.

The Township says the land will be home to "low-impact" industrial uses like food and beverage manufacturing, trucking and storage businesses, autobody and other repair shops, and infrastructure yards. The township says heavy uses—it specifically cites cement manufacturing—won't be allowed.

The Township plans to ask Metro Vancouver to re-designate the area from rural to industrial in its regional growth strategy. But first, it's asking the public to develop "a vision statement and planning principles." You can learn more about the project here.

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Tyler Olsen

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