Dear Editor,
Now that we have temporarily avoided the passing of the recent Brookswood/Fernridge OCP, it is time to reflect on the process and the people whose work resulted in this outcome.
Those of us who are happy with the outcome owe a great deal of gratitude to the people who worked very hard in preparing outstanding presentations to council.
However, there still remains a bitter taste when considering the actual process that led to these meetings.
It is curious that, at some point in this process, someone on the inside could not foresee the problematic and undemocratic nature of the system that had been put in place – a systemic process that would ultimately affect every person living not only in Brookswood/Fernridge, but all of Langley, and at the same time create a precedent that could haunt us for a very long time.
The big question that still remains in many folks’ minds is the role played in this scenario by the often referred to “staff†at the council meetings.
Even if the pro-development financing group had a large influence in the plans, it quickly became obvious that there was very little real “planning†done by staff in arriving at the final package.
After the initial public open house meetings required by law, citizens with no special training in planning and/or engineering could see many errors and omissions after only brief reviews of the proposals. So how were these errors and omissions missed by staff?  
After the less than stellar results of the current planning of the Willoughby area, one must wonder what is going on with staff that continue to put forward poorly thought-out and potentially disastrous development plans.
Perhaps it is high time to question the qualifications of those in positions responsible for making the final decisions on proposals that are to be presented for council to vote on in public – plans which, should they be accepted as presented, would not only destroy our living spaces, environment, community infrastructure, etc., but could cost Langley taxpayers millions of dollars in repairs as future problems arise.
B. Froebel, Langley