LangleyAdvance
Inspiring hope pg A7
Your community newspaper since 1931
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
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Development flip angers residents by Matthew Claxton mclaxton@langleyadvance.com
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Development
People living in a Willoughby neighbourhood are upset over a school site trade.
TOP DOLLAR PAID ON THE SPOT!!
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Audited circulation: 41,100 – 24 pages
Spring Offer
Residents of the Willoughby slope who thought they were living just down the road from the future elementary school are upset about a recently announced land swap. The swap was announced in April, at about the same time that the Lynn Fripps Elementary site was breaking ground. The school district traded land at 19865 70th Ave. with the Township and a developer in a three-way swap. The developer wound up holding the land on 70th avenue, and the school district got a new plot at 20626 84th Ave. Neighbours of the 70th Avenue site say they moved there because they thought there would Matthew Claxton/Langley Advance be a school built there for their children. Pete Pretorius, left, his father Peter, and Raj Gupta are concerned about the swap of a school district-owned site in their neighbourhood. “The main stakeholders, they were outside of the door,” said The problem residents have run the money for new schools comes expect less kids to be generated Raj Gupta, a father of two who into is the difference between a from the provincial government. from that,” said Seifi. lives across the street from the school site and a planned school. It took the district years to The Township projected a site. The district owns a number of get funding for smaller number He and neighbour Pete properties around Langley that Lynn Fripps of families with Pretorius had both moved into are potential school sites. If either Elementary in children in the “There has been no the area after looking at nearby a homeowner or a realtor called Willoughby, townhouses than designation, as far as I land zonings, and noting the the Township, they would be told despite obvious actually moved in. know.” presence of the board-owned that such a property was listed as overcrowdThe change resultland. Ramin Seifi a school site. ing for several ed from the doubPretorius said he can underBut that doesn’t mean the years in other ling of land values stand if there is district is actually neighbourhood in the 10 years no money for planning to build schools such as R.C. Garnett between 2000 and 2010. Families building a new there. Elementary. with children could no longer “We all feel we’ve school right now. “There has been That overcrowding may in part afford to move into detached been deceived.” But the land swap no designation, as be due to changing home ownerhomes as often, and many opted Raj Gupta and proposed far as I know, in ship patterns. for townhouses. development any of our plans,” As Willoughby’s slope The old planning models of high-density said Ramin Seifi, developed rapidly in the past six showed that the residents would townhouses on the site will close the Township’s manager of comyears, much of the area became generally be older couples scaling that door forever, he worries. munity development. townhouses. down, or younger couples with“We all feel we’ve been The school district doesn’t “The fact is that typically when out children. deceived,” Gupta said. continued on page A10… actually fund school construction; we look at townhouses… we
Robbery
Grow your own sweet berries
Responding police cruiser smashes into City restaurant One side-effect of Thursday’s jewelry store heist was a wrecked police cruiser.
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by Matthew Claxton
mclaxton@langleyadvance.com
Leon Black/special to the Langley Advance
This police cruiser was badly damaged after slamming into the wall at Andreas Restaurant.
Just after noon Thursday, diners and staff in Andreas Restaurant on 56th Avenue felt the building rock on its foundations. “The whole restaurant shook,” said manager Dimitrios Arsoniadis. It wasn’t an earthquake – the building had been rammed by a Langley RCMP cruiser.
The officer at the wheel had been trying to turn around in a hurry, to rush to the scene of a jewelry store holdup at Willowbrook Shopping Centre [see story on page A3]. He fishtailed on the wet roads and slammed sideways into the building. The officer suffered minor injuries, but his vehicle is heavily damaged. A sizeable crack has appeared in the wall of Andreas, and some cosmetic bricks were knocked loose from the front of the building. Arsoniadis said the officer sat in his wrecked car after the crash and calmly wrote up his report on the incident.