A vision for developing part of Horne Pit – one of the largest properties the Township of Langley owns in Brookswood – will go before the public later this month.
“Horne Pit is a very contentious topic,” Township administrator Mark Bakken acknowledged at the start of a presentation at a Monday, May 8 council meeting.
There have already been calls from members of the public and local naturalist groups to preserve the space.
Most of the site, made up of 12 properties and covering just over 70 acres, has been owned by the Township for about a century. Most of the land was acquired in tax sales, after the landowners failed to pay property taxes, a common occurrence in the 1920s and 1930s.
The site stretches between 196th Street on the west and 200th on the east, and is half a mile wide. It’s approximately in line with 27th Avenue.
Director of public works Roeland Zwaag said that the current plans for the site are not a firm proposal, but a vision and direction.
“But it’s still very much a work in process,” he said.
He guided council through some of the history of the site, which was a municipal gravel pit in the 1950s and 1960s, for Township road building.
The low-lying areas left by the gravel extraction became a wetland over the next 60 to 70 years as they filled with water and vegetation, and support a population of beavers. The waterways on the site are part of the watershed for the Little Campbell River, which runs through Campbell Valley Regional Park.
Much of the dry land on the site was used by the Township for storage of equipment, including items such as machinery or concrete barriers over the following decades.
In 2016 and 2017, reclamation of the dry parts of the site began, with the land being levelled out with fill.
PREVIOUSLY: Township remediates former gravel pit in Brookswood-Fernridge
The wetlands are in the southern-central areas of the site, flanked on the east and west side and along the north by newly-filled flat areas.
It’s the flat areas that the Township is considering for potential development.
The “first draft” concept for the site would include 120 single-family homes on 4,000 square foot lots along the north side of the site, served by a new extension of 27th Avenue. On the western edge of the site, 22 rowhomes of 3,500 square feet are contemplated.
On the corner of 200th Street and 27th Avenue, two acres could be set aside for a new Brookswood firehall. The Township is seeking a loan of up to $25 million to fund the construction of a new hall in that area.
Another three acres is earmarked for non-market affordable housing, and six acres adjacent to that could be more rowhouses, although there’s not detailed planning on the number of layout of that site.
The remainder of the site, 45 per cent of the total, would be left as an environmental area, including the wetlands. There would also be greenway paths running around the edges of the site and next to the wetland.
“Why we are here today is to get some council feedback,” Zwaag said.
What council ultimately decided was to hear from the public.
The Horne Pit presentation will be presented in parallel with the presentations about the proposed new neighbourhood plans for three of the four Brookswood-Fernridge areas that are also in the works. Those will include a Thursday, May 25 open house at the Brookswood Baptist Church, and a Monday, May 29 public hearing.
The Horne Pit presentations won’t officially be part of the neighbourhood meeting public hearing, but there will be a chance to comment.
Several councillors, including Misty Van Popta and Michael Pratt, asked about the possibility of re-drawing some of the plans to leave more areas in a natural state.
Coun. Tim Baillie was very pleased to see a site for a new firehall directly on 200th Street, as well as the non-market housing component.
READ ALSO: Coyote attacks, bites 2-year-old child at B.C. park
Have a story tip? Email: matthew.claxton@langleyadvancetimes.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
