Fort Langley could soon have a new theatre, new restaurants, new shops or as many as 41 new residential units on the corner of Glover Road and Mary Avenue.
Eric Woodward isn’t sure yet. His latest development in Fort Langley is still a “blank canvas,” and he’s looking for community input before a plan is drafted.
“There’s no schedule yet,” said Woodward, a local developer who owns 30 per cent of Fort Langley’s commercial property.
“We value the community being aware that we are starting the process. We are not trying to hide the fact that we’re doing something, we’re making everything public on day one.”
On Oct. 8, Woodward held a planning session with nearly 100 Fort Langley residents to get their input on his latest endeavour, involving seven properties located across from the Fort Langley Community Hall. The properties front Glover Road, Mary Avenue and Church Street and cover 1.39 acres.
Woodward has slowly been purchasing them since 2005 with a plan “to do something extraordinary.”
Currently zoned for C-2 community commercial, the lots could be transformed into many different things. Under the zoning there are up to 41 residential units permitted (30 units per acre) or commercial uses such as retail stores, restaurants, hotels, offices, bars and pubs, ballrooms and performance theatres.
Woodward also owns an eighth property in that block, which Coast Capital Savings has leased for the next 22 years.
“I could have developed one or two spots five years ago, but instead I’ve been sitting on a vacant lot to try to get all eight together to do something truly interesting and different that can have a real impact, “ Woodward said.
“Not just build a building and be finished. We’re thinking about the long-term plan here.”
At the planning session, the residents — who Woodward personally invited — sat around 12 tables and were given an hour to discuss what they want to see in the village.
Participants included residents and business owners directly affected by the changes, and those who have and have not supported his developments in the past, Woodward said.
Topics of discussion varied between land services and uses, community amenities, and character and architectural elements.
“We would love to see Fort Langley take off as a great pedestrian destination south of the Fraser to rival White Rock and Steveston,” Woodward said.
“And in order to do that we want to build high-quality buildings that will be around for a long, long time where, really, profit is secondary to that.”
Woodward cites the Coulter Berry building as an example of this, where the architecture and design are not “profit-motivated construction.”
“If we’re able to get approval for something really, really nice, it’s not about profit,” he said. “Because the rents in Fort Langley don’t support the kind of construction that we’re doing, typically. So it’s a very long-term plan to try to revitalize a really cool destination in the Fraser Valley.”
Not all agree with Woodward’s tastes, though.
The Coulter Berry building has been a controversial development in the village since its proposal in 2012, and was taken to court for exceeding size limit guidelines for downtown Fort Langley.
Woodward says he’s learned a lot from that process, but isn’t “afraid of fighting for what we believe in.”
That includes building to three storeys.
Despite opposition to Coulter Berry, Woodward says there are great benefits to adding an additional floor.
“It doesn’t have to be three storeys, but I would propose three storeys again,” he said.
“It enables the construction of underground parking, which gets cars out of sight and out of the way . . . . You can have a strip mall, you know a Willowbrook or something like that, or you can do a really cool design that is really people-focused and really pedestrian-focused, not based on a parking lot.
“You can’t do that in a two-storey building, you’ll end up with surface parking for commercial. It is possible with residential, (but) commercial rent support is not high enough to sustain underground parking in a smaller building.”
Whether it will be two or three storeys is yet to be decided. Woodward is now taking comments from the public planning session back to his architect to come up with a plan.
“We’re going to listen to these public forums and not be judging the outcome at all at this point,” Woodward said.
“It’s a very sincere effort, honestly.”
Coulter Berry building scheduled to open in April
Fort Langley residents can expect to shop and dine in the new Coulter Berry building by April 2016.
Developer Eric Woodward gave an update on the building’s progress during a public planning meeting for another construction endeavour on Oct. 8.
Sidewalks along Glover Road and Mavis Avenue will be restored in February.
A decision on the future of the residential units has not been made.
Out of the 11 retail spaces available, seven have been rented out to businesses, including a small Mexican restaurant, a larger “full-blown” restaurant and a dry cleaner.