interview with Chris Anstey re: the JDF Velodrome

The Greater Victoria Velodrome Association (GVVA) has elected to sue West Shore Parks and Rec over their proposal to close the JDF velodrome. Recently, Inside Langford spoke to Chris Anstey of the GVVA. We hope in the future to speak to a West Shore Parks and Rec spokesperson to expand the scope of Inside Langford’s coverage on this issue.

Chris Antsey was unable to discuss the specifics of the lawsuit, as that had to be done through the GVVA’s lawyer, but he was happy to bring us up to speed about what led to the lawsuit.

New Langford transmission towers

About a week ago, residents on the Langford side of Triangle Mountain noticed a pair of new transmission towers appearing on the mountain. A call to Langford City Hall confirmed that they are in fact cell phone towers.

When the recent joint Langford/Colwood Sewage meeting was cancelled (reportedly due to not all members of the Councils being able to attend), I elected to attend another event that was scheduled at the same time, a group called CAUSE (Citizens Against UnSafe Emissions) and their concerns about electromagnetic radiation. CAUSE has recently been airing concerns about the towers on top of Triangle Mountain, and

BMX track association given eviction notice

I have been informed by a member of the West Shore BMX Association at Juan de Fuca Rec that West Shore Parks and Rec have elected to evict the BMX club, effective 30 days from the notice. This is the association attached to the original BMX track.

The notice was dated June 18, 2008, which puts the eviction at the same time as the July 18-20,2008, BMX National Championships being held at the facility. The letter notes that West Shore Parks and Rec “are aware that you have scheduled the Nationals on the track for July 18-20, 2008 and will honour this commitment,” but they go on to say

Sewage meeting post-poned

Last night’s joint meeting of Colwood and Langford councils has been post-poned. No reason has yet been given. When more information is available, Inside Langford will report the news.

– Steven Hurdle –

retrospective – April 2008 part 1

For those new to the site, here is the latest in our series of posts that look at the articles from earlier in Inside Langford’s existence.

Early in April a comment was observed in a prominent Globe and Mail article about

Joint Langford/Colwood Council Meeting tomorrow on sewage

Langford’s and Colwood’s city council’s will meet together tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 7 PM at Colwood’s municipal hall (3300 Wishart Road). The topic of discussion is sewage, and it’s certainly been a hot-button topic of late. For our part, the City of Langford is now part of three sewage studies (one at the Capital Regional District level with all the municipalities of Greater Victoria, one with Westhills, and now a joint study with Colwood). The public is welcome to attend, as this is an open meeting of the two councils.

– Steven Hurdle –

reminder: 10-digit dialing starts in Langford today

As reported earlier, 10-digit dialing begins in Langford, and throughout all of the province that hasn’t already been doing it, today. You need to dial the area code to place a local call (ie. 250-xxx-xxxx). If you neglect to prefix a local call with 250 the call will still go through until about mid-September, but you will get a recorded message reminding you to add 250 next time. After mid-September, the call will no longer go through if you don’t dial “250”. Finally, some time after that they will begin issuing phone numbers with the 778 area code locally.

Please don’t shoot the messenger. :)

– Steven Hurdle –

Update: 4 Houses at a time, and 2 at a time

A small update to the news story Inside Langford broke over a week ago that the City of Langford was offering homes back to the previous owners 4 at a time on Leigh Road. The only update is that they are selling all of them in lots of four, save for one which is a lot of 2.

It will be interesting to see if any of the former residents are able to repurchase any of their homes, or if this will ultimately amount to instant re-development of the neighbourhood.

– Steven Hurdle –

Home Owner Grant (HOG) Online

For those who have yet to pay their property taxes, if you are applying for the Province’s Home Owner Grant, you can do so online in advance to save time at City Hall. As a bonus, the grant is forwarded to the municipality as soon as you complete the online application, regardless of when you file your taxes. Click here to go to the Home Owner Grant online submission form.

– Steven Hurdle –

Truck Noise Bylaw amended

Langford Council has amended the truck noise bylaw to allow trucks to move between 10 PM and 5 AM to assist in construction of the Spencer Road Interchange. Speaking to the media, Mayor Young indicated: “You can’t do it during the day because it will disrupt traffic. And there’s nobody around there, really, that it affects. They’ll do it fairly quietly,” Young said.

While it’s easy to agree with Young that there are downsides to moving the trucks and construction equipment around during the day, I don’t believe it’s accurate to say there is “nobody around there, really.” The residents at the south end of Savory Road, for example, are likely to be strongly affected by it.