Langley City will give its residents a chance to block a $15 million loan it plans to take out to buy property and upgrade civic infrastructure.
Council approved the borrowing at its meeting on Monday, March 6.
The money is to be broken into two parts.
About $4.48 million is to go towards a project to acquire more land for the City.
The remaining $10.51 million will be spent as part of the $18.2 million infrastructure upgrades coming to the one-way section of Fraser Highway.
This major and long-gestating project will replace some of the oldest underground infrastructure in the City, as well as undergrounding the power lines, upgrading the streetscape, and planting more boulevard trees.
The total cost of the borrowing, over 20 years, will be $30,200,000, when interest is taken into account.
Councillor Delaney Mack was the only member of council to vote against the borrowing.
“I believe there are more fiscally responsible and fiscally wise options and revenue sources,” she said.
Mack had earlier tried to convince the rest of council to re-open the budget and use the $7.2 million one-time grant from the province, announced just last week, to defray some budget or borrowing costs.
Because the City is taking on debt over a long period of time, it has to go through a two-step process before it can accept the loan.
First, it has to get approval from the province, via the Inspector of Municipalities. That can take six to seven weeks, according to Langley City staff.
Then they can go through an alternative approval process. This allows voters to demand a referendum on major long-term borrowing.
The City will advertise the loan and let people know how they can submit a response form that opposes the borrowing. At least 10 per cent of the community’s voters have to submit the forms to trigger either a referendum, or a reconsideration of the borrowing by the council.
Assuming the borrowing is approved at the provincial level, the alternative approval process is expected to start around May to early June.
READ ALSO: New $7.2 million grant doesn’t change Langley City’s tax increase
Have a story tip? Email: matthew.claxton@langleyadvancetimes.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.