Parks, Recreation, and Culture Plan

 

With the arrival of the SkyTrain, a densifying city centre, and significant population growth, the City of Langley of the future will be a far more dynamic community offering unique opportunities to residents and visitors. At the July 24, 2023, Regular Council Meeting, the City of Langley was at an exciting to announce the Parks, Recreation, and Culture Plan (PRC Plan) was endorsed by Langley City Council. The PRC Plan will strategically guide and manage the direction of parks, recreation, and culture for the next 10 years to support Langley City in remaining a vibrant and livable City. 

The Vision: Langley City is “the Place to Be” for diverse parks, recreation activities, and cultural experiences. These opportunities strengthen community connections, support healthy and active lifestyles, protect, and enhance the environment, and welcome everyone.

To support the vision five goals were established: inclusive, accessible, affordable; safe community; quality infrastructure; healthy natural environment; and improved connectivity.

Through the development of the vision and goals, some of the key recommendations were established in 7 categories.

Key Recommendations – Parks

  • Acquire new parkland within developing areas.
  • Major Park upgrades to City Park, Buckley Park, Douglas Park, Nicomekl Floodplain, BC Hydro Corridor, Penzer Park, Uplands Dog off-leash Park, Innes Corners Plaza, Conder Park, Rotary Centennial Park, Sendall Gardens, Brydon Park

Key Recommendations – Outdoor Amenities

  • Upgrade Park amenities – older multi-sport courts, shade at playgrounds, washrooms
  • Add Park amenities – accessible washrooms, community gardens, dog off-leash area, picnic facilities, tennis courts, skate park, beach volleyball courts, bike pump track, adventure play area.

Key Recommendations – Trails

  • Acquire land to support trail connectivity.
  • More trails, paving and infrastructure.
  • Increase wayfinding signs, especially in Nicomekl Floodplain

Key Recommendations - Recreation and Culture Programs and Services

  • More fitness classes, lifestyle, and social programs for all ages, and visual and performing art classes.
  • More outdoor programs, events
  • Childminding with fitness facilities
  • More partnership, more focus on equity, diversity and inclusion

Key Recommendations - Indoor Recreation Spaces

  • Upgrade and expand Timms Community Centre
  • Replace or significantly renovate/expand Douglas Recreation Centre

Key Recommendations - Aquatic Facilities

  • Plan and build a new indoor aquatic facility.
  • Upgrade Al Anderson Memorial Pool to improve the energy use and recreation opportunities for the interim or long term.

Key Recommendations - Culture and Multi-Use Facilities

  • Explore opportunities for a Public Private partnership in the development of a Performing Arts Centre
  • Explore opportunities for a fundraising campaign.
  • Replace Sendall House with an environmental and multi-use facility.
  • New multi-use community building to replace the again lawn bowling facility.

 

A phased implementation plan with costs and DCC eligibility will be part of the yearly budget cycles and departmental work plans moving forward. Many of the projects will involve community engagement as they are implemented.  Staff will look for a variety of funding sources including federal and provincial grants to help support the work, recognizing that collaboration and partnerships are a key component to the success of this plan.

Overview

The planning process involved reviewing existing plans, policies, and strategies, conducting a technical review of existing facilities and amenities, and community engagement. In the fall of 2021, there was a community survey, workshops, and pop-up engagement to find out residents’ perspectives and needs. Those have now been combined with analysis into a summary of the draft master plan. In spring 2022, the draft plan was presented to the public, there was a community survey, a virtual open house, and pop-up engagement sessions. In summer 2023, the PRC Plan was endorsed by Council.

Read the Summary of Engagement

In September 2021, a number of interactive workshops were held using Zoom. The purpose of the workshops was to obtain input from community stakeholders regarding the City of Langley’s Parks, Recreation and Culture Master Plan. The workshops began with introductions and a short presentation on the context, content, and planning process of the master plan.  The following is a synthesis of the workshop input, including strengths, challenges, vision, and ideas generated by each group. After a brainstorming exercise, the vision and ideas were synthesized and the groups used ranked polling to identify their priorities.  Read the Summary of the Langley Workshops and Quick Survey here!

The City of Langley is embarking upon a process to update the 2013 Parks, Recreation, and Culture Master Plan. The City has completed many of the recommendations in the previous plan, and the community is changing, so it is now time to renew the plan. As a part of this update, a community survey was open between October 1 and 17, 2021. There were 876 responses. This presentation summarizes the results. Read the Langley PRC MP Survey Summary!

Read the Summary of the Draft Parks, Recreation, Culture Master Plan

Summary of the Draft Parks, Recreation, Culture Master Plan shows the key findings and recommendations in the draft PRC Master Plan.

Map 2 - Spatial Analysis of Parks shows walking distances to existing parks. It highlights locations that lack access to parks.

Map 3 - Existing and Proposed Parks and Trails shows the locations of existing and proposed parks and trails. Many of these are to support population growth north of the Nicomekl River.