Though Langley officials earlier approved the street improvements, the elaborate, stone-rimmed planting beds along Third Street at the rebuilt St. Hubert Catholic Church may have to be removed.

The raised rock beds were part of the city-approved landscaping plan for the new church campus at Third Street and De Bruyn Avenue. Langley officials now have second thoughts about the church’s elaborate landscaping.

Triggered by complaints from residents, city officials will meet on site to decide if the flower beds can stay or have to go, said Rick Hill, public works director.

“Some people think they are a problem, others don’t,” he said.

The second look comes after a Langley resident was injured last month when she got tangled in watering hoses and crashed her bike as she was trying to ride through the raised planters.

It’s unfortunate that somebody was hurt, but the church administration says the landscaping issue isn’t their problem.

“They (the planters) were forced on us by the city,” said church administrator Marcia Halligan.

Planners for the church construction project originally intended to have standard curbs, and not the row of stacked, jagged rocks that line Third Street. But the suggestion for standard curbs was shot down by the Design Review Board in favor of “rural landscaping.”

“They said we’d not get our landscape plan approved without it,” Halligan said.

The church administration now expects the city to solve the problem.

“We’re not getting ourselves involved,” Halligan said. The sidewalk and plantings are on city property.

“We’re leaving it up to them,” she said.

One issue is the cost of the removal.

Halligan noted that it cost the church about $15,000 for the upscale flower beds, and the church has no reserves in its building fund to remove the planters at the church’s cost.

Even taking out a small portion of the rocks during the campus construction cost about $3,000, Halligan said.

Halligan acknowledged that the planters may be difficult to navigate with a bike.

While attractive to some, the planters make the walkway appear smaller. They also look like an instant flat tire for any driver who glances off the curb while motoring along Third Street.

“They are visually intimidating,” Halligan said.