A new 98-unit housing complex, with more than half of its units to be affordable housing, moved a significant step closer to getting approval from Langley Township council on Monday, Jan. 11.
The Christian Life Assembly Housing Society got a unanimous vote in favour from the council for the third reading of rezoning bylaws, following a public hearing at which no one voiced any opposition.
Peter Fassbender, the former mayor Langley City, is the president of the Christian Life Assembly Housing Society’s board, and spoke via Zoom at Monday’s hearing.
He noted that the society has already held a virtual town hall meeting and has leafleted the nearby condos and houses to let them know about the proposed project, which is to be built in the 21200 block of 56th Avenue to the west of the current church site, near Nicomekl Creek.
The only questions, via emails, were concerns by a couple of neighbours about the potential hazard of a pond on the site to children living in the future apartments.
Fassbender said the development will have a perimeter fence around it that should help, and he noted that there are already daycare and pre-schools operating out of the nearby church.
“That pond has been there, as you know, for the entire time the property has been part of CLA,” Fassbender said, noting that is 46 years.
If approved, the project will have 29 units rented at market rates, 49 with rent geared to income for low income households, and 20 for subsidized housing.
The project is the second major church-based affordable housing project in Langley in recent years. The Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church also contributed land for a mixture of apartments and townhouses on 72nd Avenue near 200th Street, and the apartments began taking in renters this month.