Tuesday, March 8, 2016

City of Langley presents 203rd Street preliminary options, receives feedback from community

The City of Langley recently hosted an open house regarding proposed changes along 203rd Street between Grade Crescent and Michaud Crescent. The $5.6 million dollar project is co-funded via the federal New Build Canada Fund, and the provincial Bike BC program.

You can read my thoughts about the project on a posted I put up last month. People attending the open house were able to provide feedback on the following two options.

Option 1: Sidewalks and On-Street Bike Lanes. Select image to enlarge.

Option 2: Sidewalks and Off-street Bike Lanes. Select image to enlarge.

As you might notice, there is no parking along the south section of 203rd Street.

People that attended the open house were given the chance to provide feedback on the project. They were also asked to rank what they would like to see accomplished by the reconstruction of 203rd Street.

The City made available the following results from the Open House questionnaire.

Survey Results from 203rd Street Open House. Select graph to enlarge.

If you look at what people chose as their top priorities for the reconstruction of 203rd, the ranked order would be:

  1. Traffic Calming
  2. Improved Pedestrian Facilities
  3. Limit Impact to Existing Trees & Landscaping
  4. Maintain Street Parking
  5. Improved Cycling Facilities
  6. Street Beautification
  7. Other Priority

A modified version of option 2 would address the top three priorities while improving cycling and beautifying the street. What I’ve heard from people in the south section of 203rd is that their needs to be some parking. Option 2 would actually fit closely into the existing footprint of 203rd. The challenge will be to incorporate parking into the plan while preserving the existing trees and landscaping. I look forward to seeing an updated plan, and I know that people living along 203rd Street will be too.

It is important that people in the community get another chance to review the updated plan, and provide input, before it goes to Council for approval.

1 comment:

Tim said...

Is parking really required in that south segment? Shouldn't parking surveys be done to determine whether this is a nice to have vs a need to have? Parking directly outside one's door for occasional company is not a must have. Additional parking is available on side streets. Looking at the satellite view on Google Maps I see a total of 2 vehicles parked and plenty of free parking on adjacent streets. From what I have heard parking at night is not much in demand on this section.