The developers of The Grove in Langley have put their plans to expand the project on hold — for now.
Pacific Crest Partners notified the city of Langley that the Bellingham-based company will be indefinitely postponing a presentation to city council on its new plan, said Walt Blackford, city administrator.
The company is still considering its options for developing its property on Coles Road, and the postponing follows Pacific Crest Partners’ recent request that the city increase the size of its proposed housing development.
Details of the reworked plan are sketchy. Bob Libolt of Pacific Crest Partners didn’t return phone calls or e-mails from The Record for comment.
Saying its current plans didn’t pencil out, the developers recently approached the city and asked Langley officials to almost double the number of lots in the development.
After meeting with city staff, the developers withdrew that proposal, but asked for a chance to present a revised plan to the city council on Nov. 15.
At the council’s meeting last week, however, neighbors and Langley residents criticized the proposal to change the 24-home housing development into a
46-home subdivision.
More than 60 people showed up to the city council meeting last Wednesday and many said they didn’t want extra homes built on the land.
The most outspoken people opposed to the original plan for The Grove were nearby homeowners who live outside of Langley. Many still recall the clear-cutting of the property, which remains a sore point for some in Langley.
The city approved the subdivision last year. The 40-acre property was annexed to the city of Langley in 2005, and several conditions were set for the developer in the annexation agreement — including a limit of 24 single-family homes and 30 acres left as open space.
Along with the change to carve the property into 46 lots instead of 24, the developers also said the company would have to reduce the amount of undeveloped open space from 23 acres to 20.66 acres.
To make changes now, the annexation agreement would have to be amended.
