8/19/2019 Langley Advance Welcome to the Neighbourhood page 12

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Langley AdvanceWelcome to the Neighbourhood, 2016   WELCOME

WelcomeFrom the MLA for

Langley.is my pleasure to extend my personal welcome toangley.Langley is the perfect community in which to work,ve and raise a family. This community offers many

nities, parks and lots of shopping to meet the needse citizens. Families will appreciate the vast array ofs and services available for their children to partici-in.ngley has a uniqued of country livinga complementary

d of city atmosphere.everything from aing wine industryreputation as the

e Capital of BC,ley has somethingveryone.is community has ad history of volun-sm. People from alland walks of lifete countless hoursake Langley a bettere and to provide ser-

to those people whoassistance in theirlives.the MLA for Langley I am proud to represent this

munity and I look forward to continuing my work fory years to come.ust that if you have just moved here, you will learnve this community as much as those of us who havee this our home.

 Mary Polak, Member of the Legislative Assembly,

 Langley

MLA Mary Polak

Langley has manyneighbourhoods, each withits own character.

W

hat is Langley like?It depends very

much on whichLangley you’re talking

about. The Langleys are two muni-cipalities, and at least seven separ-ate neighbourhoods.

Treat Langley as a large, squareclock and start at midnight tofind the first community – FortLangley, the birthplace of Langleyand of British Columbia. Foundedas a fur-trading settlement, theFort is now known for historicarchitecture and its boutiques andcafés on its main street, GloverRoad. It is one of Langley’s smallercommunities with 3,800 people.

Head east and far south, andyou reach Aldergrove, anotherhistoric area, and one expected tosee some growth soon. (Read more

about Aldergrove in our neigh-bourhood spotlight on page A10.)

Heading back west fromAldergrove will take you througha broad stretch of rural Langley.Not a neighbourhood itself, therural areas nevertheless are hometo about 23,000 residents. Theyinclude acreages, hobby farms,large agricultural operations, andpockets of housing development.Within the broader rural regionsyou can find small crossroads witha few stores, churches, or com-

munity halls that have retainedtheir own identity, such as Milner,Harmsworth, and Patricia.

The first major community westof Aldergrove is Murrayville, hometo 10,300 people, The W.C. BlairPool, and the Langley Memorial

Hospital. While most of the neigh-bourhood is suburban, there are asignificant number of seniors com-plexes in the area, taking advan-tage of the walkable town core andproximity to the hospital.

Continuing to the southwestcorner of Langley we reachBrookswood and Fernridge,and its 13,200 residents. Slatedfor some future development,Fernridge remains mostly semi-rural, while Brookswood is a quietcommunity of quarter-acre lots,

schools, and a pair of small com-mercial cores on 200th Street and208th Street.

Swinging up to the north,Brookswood abuts Langley City.The City split off from the largerTownship in the 1950s. A meretwo miles on a side, this smalltown has about 26,000 residentsand a high density of shops andother downtown amenities, includ-

ing the Cascades Casino and theregion’s largest public library.

North of the City is Willoughby.A few years ago Willoughby wasa rural area, but rapid develop-ment has turned it into themost densely populated part ofLangley Township, with morethan 29,000 residents and morearriving every day. You knowyou are in Willoughby when youare in the midst of homes, town-houses, and construction sites forfuture homes and townhouses. Aswith Brookswood to the south,200th Street and 208th Street arethe main arteries for this area.Willoughby is home to the Langley

Events Centre, the Township’s lar-gest ice arena and sports complex.

North across the Trans CanadaHighway you can find WalnutGrove. Like Willoughby, it was aquiet farming area until wholesaledevelopment in the 1980s and1990s. A community defined bysingle-family homes on cul-de-sacsWalnut Grove’s main drag is 88thAvenue. Its centre is the WalnutGrove Recreation Centre, whichincludes a pool, gymnasium,library and other amenities.

 A community of communities

Langley Advance files

Nearly 75 per cent of LangleyTownship remains active farmland.