LangleyAdvance
Stealth gets going pg A16
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Thursday, January 2, 2014
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While Fort Langley keeps moving, a court decision brought Coulter Berry to a screeching halt in 2013. That pleased opponents and frustrated developers. Matthew Claxton/Langley Advance
The saga of the Coulter Berry building lasted almost two years, but took its most dramatic turns in 2013.
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By the late summer, letters to the editor were flooding in, many of them opposed to the project. The Langley Heritage Society The story that gripped a neighbourhood like came out against the plan, and hundreds of people packed an October meeting organized no other this year came from Langley’s oldby the Fort Langley Community Association est neighbourhood, and concerned its newest to talk about the project. planned building. In November, the project The Coulter Berry project, a went to the Langley Township planned three-storey building on one council, as Statewood had of the most prominent corners in Fort applied for a heritage alteraLangley, has roots that go back years. tion permit. The permit was Though no one could have seen it needed because the proposed at the time, the story begins with the building was both taller and fire in January 2011 that destroyed covered more land area than the IGA on the corner of Mavis Langley Advance files allowed under the heritage Avenue and Glover Road. Barb Hinde, Fred Pepin, and Margo McKenzie collected guidelines for building in the The grocery store’s owners, the Lee Fort’s downtown. family, decided to build their new handprints to show support for preserving Fort Langley. Over two nights, residents grocery farther back on the site. They building overshadowing the other one- and were sharply divided, with proposed a new two-storey office and two-storey structures on the corner. more opposed. Opponents commercial complex for the portion Langley Advance files Township council voted seven to one in also dropped off a petition of the property that fronts Glover Andy Schildhorn presented favour of the heritage alteration permit and with hundreds of names. Road. a stack of petitions the size allowed the building to proceed. Few minced words. The two-storey design included of a phone book against While the matter seemed settled as of the “We need a three storey retail and office buildings, and an the Coulter Berry building. late fall of 2012, the war of words over the building in our community open plaza at ground level. It drew building continued in the letters column of like we need a cholera outmild interest from the community. the Langley Advance. Statewood Properties break,” said longtime resident Paul St. Pierre. However, when Frontier Hardware on the broke ground on the proWhile some projects in the past next lot to the southwest closed, the new ject, which was planned have seen the village divided developer, Eric Woodward’s Statewood “It can and should be to be LEED Gold, use geoProperties, combined the two sites. In June of largely between its merchants and developed within the thermal heating, and have its residents and heritage advo2012, they proposed a new, three-storey plan a green wall of plants on cates, this development saw the for the larger site. heritage bylaws.” one side. merchants split as well. Diane Morrison In July, a new group, Several store owners said they the Society of Fort Langley wanted to see the Coulter Berry Residents for Sustainable Development, took building go ahead, bringing in more residents to the courts to change things. The organizaand business, while others objected. tion launched a lawsuit against the Township, “It can and should be developed within the alleging that the heritage alteration permit heritage bylaws,” said Diane Morrison, one shouldn’t have been issued. While the new of the founders of the Fort Langley Business foundations were dug for the proposed buildImprovement Association. ing, lawyers argued in B.C. Supreme Court Many, like Fred Pepin of the Langley Heritage Society, spoke out against the design that the project should be stopped. An amendment to Fort Langley’s Official and how it modified the guidelines for heritCommunity Plan was needed as well as the age construction. Langley Advance files Many said it would damage the character of heritage permit, according to documents filed The Langley Township council chambers were standing room with the court. the village. continued on page A14… only as Fort residents packed in to give their yeas and nays. Others worried about parking, about the
by Matthew Claxton mclaxton@langleyadvance.com