Coles Valley project resurfaces in Langley

Published 1:30 am Friday, May 22, 2026

The stalled Coles Valley housing proposal in Langley might be reborn as a Habitat for Humanity affordable housing development.

At a city council meeting Monday, Mayor Kennedy Horstman presented a proposed land use agreement intended to replace an older annexation agreement that has long constrained the project. She explained that Habitat for Humanity of Island County is now under contract to purchase the entire 40-acre property, assuming approval of the new agreement.

As currently envisioned, the land use agreement would allow for 65 single-family lots and two cottage tracts limited to ten cottages each. No decisions were made about the agreement, which will be brought back to the June 1 council meeting.

Orin Kolaitis, the CEO of Island County Habitat, said the nonprofit group is asking for the council’s support for a project that could be transformative for the community.

“This opportunity will allow us to build homes that working families in this community can actually afford,” he said. “Teachers, health care workers, first responders, retail employees, the people who make Langley function are being priced out of the very community they serve. This development is a direct response to that reality.”

Kolaitis said the project would be funded through a combination of financing, public funding and private donations. He said the group is partnering with a Habitat affiliate out of Seattle.

“It is something that they’ve been wanting to do for other Habitat affiliates and offer this service,” he said. “It’s a great partnership for us. We’re excited that we get to be kind of the pilot program for them.”

Kolaitis stressed that the proposal is for thoughtfully designed owner-occupied homes. Habitat for Humanity is a national nonprofit organization that helps people obtain affordable housing by working with families who may not be able to afford traditional homeownership through homebuilding, repair and renovation programs.

In introducing the proposal, Horstman spoke about the history of the project as a proposed planned unit development, which had drawn disagreement from the community in the past.

Yet on Monday, the mayor, the property owner, a school district representative and council members all spoke enthusiastically about a proposal they feel would bring much-needed workforce housing to the city, while only one resident spoke in opposition.

“There’s a lot of benefits here for this community,” said Bob Libolt, who owns the property with his wife. “It’s providing a need that I think has come up a couple of times already tonight, and it’s a reasonable economic solution for me.”

The central constraint on the development of the 40 acres on Coles Road has been a 2005 annexation agreement between the city and a previous owner. The current zoning would normally allow for 115 lots on the property, but the annexation agreement limits it to 24.

The developer, South Whidbey LLC, originally proposed a planned unit development with 137 homes and additional accessory dwelling units. But the applicants withdrew the proposal in November 2024 because of ongoing complications, especially with affordable housing requirements.

Last July, the developer applied for a long plat permit to subdivide the property while, separately, expressing a desire to update the annexation agreement to facilitate their proposal as well as a willingness to work with the city to include permanently affordable housing as part of the development, according to the mayor. As Horstman explained, the developer also expressed an intent to pursue a legal challenge to the conditions imposed by the annexation agreement.

As a result, a land use agreement was worked out between the parties to allow greater density.