Scanned attachments / image pages (signatures and scanned submissions)

Request for submission during the Public Hearing, Monday, 29 June 2020 at 5:30pm

To

Robert Dykstra
Planning Department
City of Langford
Sent by E-mail: rdykstra@langford.ca

Copy to Suzette Chapman, Planning Assistant
Sent by e-mail: planning@langford.ca

RE:

Proposal to amend Langford Zoning Bylaw 300 by means of proposed Bylaw No. 1883. File Z19-0023

The purpose of the bylaw is to rezone 2627 Sooke Road from R2(one and two-family residential) Zone to the C9 (Community Town Centre Pedestrian 9) Zone that includes a request for increased density on this site to permit a 90-unit apartment building with one commercial unit along Sooke Road.

In the materials provided to date, there is no traffic study / report regarding the impact to Southglen Drive, Ernhill Drive and Jacklin Road should this development be approved to proceed.

As a resident on Ernhill Drive for the past [redacted] years, I can provide first-hand knowledge of the increase of traffic flow over the past several years as a result of the completion of the multi-unit housing development at the end of Ernhill Drive. We have seen a fair increase in vehicle traffic as a result from these residents. Ernhill Drive was never designed for potential as a through-street but rather a dead-end street to service a small residential neighbourhood. There are no sidewalks for pedestrians – we all use the road for walking, biking, kids on their skateboards. The Southglen/Ernhill neighbourhood has only one way in and out to Jacklin Road. In addition, Ernhill Drive has a steep grade at the top off Jacklin Road with two sharp bends in the road. The last bend in the road creates a blind spot for vehicles travelling down the street. Regardless of the posted speed limit, drivers tend to approach this bend at an excess speed requiring quick action to brake for residents pulling out their driveway – creating a safety hazard.

The developer is requesting approval to build a 90-unit apartment building with a grade level commercial unit that only allows the access and egress directly off Southglen /Ernhill Drive and Jacklin Road except for minor right hand turns on and off onto Sooke Road.

Even with the reduced parking variance being requested, it would result in approximately 150 parking stalls on site. That would equate to approximately 150 vehicles requiring access to this site on a daily basis to go to work and back and to go shopping, etc. In addition, there would be service vehicles, delivery vans, recycling and garbage pick ups that would be required. Also visitors to the residents and the commercial business. This back and forth traffic will result in approximately 300 vehicles needing to use Ernhill Drive / Southglen Drive on a daily basis. The additional traffic allowing this new access for this 90-unit development would change the very nature of the street and raise safety concerns for the current residents.

This Bylaw change would severely impact our neighbourhood by bringing an unacceptable level of traffic on our only street. This would contribute to decreasing the value of each of the residents' properties.

Although the report mentions the re-development of other multi-family and mixed-use buildings similar to this proposal in nearby surroundings, such as the Happy Valley/Sooke Road development; it is important to note that the difference is that the access for that development for traffic on and off the site does not go through a one-way residential crescent like this proposal.

This has always been a neighbourhood of well established and maintained homes and not a neighbourhood in transition.

We are opposed to the application to rezone 2627 Sooke Road from One-and-Two Family Residential (R2) to Community Town Centre Pedestrian 9 (C9) that would allow a 90-unit Apartment Building with one Commercial Unit along Sooke Road.

Respectfully submitted by,

[redacted]
Homeowners of [redacted] Ernhill Drive