After teasing a possible run for mayor of Langley Township, prominent Fort Langley resident Eric Woodward has announced he will run for council instead.
“I want to help fix the big issues I see,” Woodward said in a post on Facebook. “Brookswood is on a path to becoming another version of Willoughby, with missing infrastructure and schools, Aldergrove needs vision and private investment, and we can do so much better than we are in Willoughby, with 208th Street the prime example of doing it wrong.”
Woodward said that although the mayor has a platform to make more changes in policy and political culture than a councillor, a councillor can still “pursue new ideas and vision, and offer the leadership we need.”
Woodward is a past president of the Fort Langley Business Improvement Association and has been involved with a number of community events over the years.
But he is best known as one of the major landowners in the downtown of Fort Langley, owning almost 40 per cent of the core. He developed the Coulter Berry building despite fierce divisions among Fort residents and a lawsuit that temporarily halted work on the site.
In late 2017, Woodward feuded with the Township over conditions for several sites he planned to develop in the Fort, and ultimately withdrew his development plans. He has transformed one vacant lot into a pop-up park and boarded up a few other empty buildings.
This summer, Woodward announced he will transfer his commercial real estate in the Fort to a new charitable foundation. Woodward is expected to serve as one of the foundation’s board members. The total assets of the foundation could climb to more than $100 million over the next 10 to 15 years as all the lands are transferred.
Woodward’s decision not to run for mayor means there is exactly one candidate: incumbent Mayor Jack Froese.
Longtime Township Councillor Kim Richter announced she would run earlier this year, but pulled back and decided to run again for council as well.
The B.C. municipal elections will be held on Oct. 20.
READ MORE: Richter drops out of Langley Township mayoral race
READ MORE: Fort Langley lots to be part of $100 million charitable foundation