TOL Votes to make 216th a TRUCK ROUTE May 8th 2PM, send form letter and attend with signs

While we are all headed to the polls or glued to the TV watching the election unfold, your TOL government is playing dirty tricks hoping to get this passed without response from our community! The Township Council is considering the following recommendation made by staff at its May 8th 2PM afternoon Council meeting: “That Council direct staff to initiate application to Translink, conduct a public information session, and bring forward amendments to the Highway and Traffic Bylaw, as necessary to incorporate the following modifications:” A) 216 Street Interchange: ■ Designate 216 Street from 88 Avenue to the new interchange at Trans-Canada Highway No. 1 as a truck route; and ■ Designate 216 Street from the new interchange at Trans-Canada Highway No.1 to provincial Highway No. 10 as a truck route. B) Fort Langley ■ Remove the truck route designation for Glover Road from Rawlison Crescent to River Road; ■ Remove the truck route designation for Glover Road from Rawlison Crescent to River Road ■ Remove the truck route designation for 96 Avenue from 216 Street to Glover Road; ■ Remove the truck route designation for 88 Avenue from 216 Street to Glover Road; ■ Remove the truck route designation for Mavis Avenue from River Road to Glover Road; ■ Remove the truck route designation for River Road from Mavis Avenue to 240 Street; ■ Remove the truck route designation for River Road east of 264 Street ■ Designate Rawlison Crescent from 232 Street to 240 Street as a truck route; and ■ Designate 240 Street from Rawlison Crescent to River Road as a truck route. ********************************************************************** I ask that each of you send an email to the mayor and councillors regarding the truck route designation for 216th Street. I encourage you to use own words, but below is a “form message” you may use in whole or in part: Please also remember to vote in the Provincial Election on Tuesday with the 216 interchange in mind! You are able to take time off work to vote in the provincial election and maybe you want to attend the 2PM TOL meeting with signs in protest. I will be out of country on business and have already voted for change, but I would love to hear reports from others about your attendance. Sincerely, Concerned Walnut Grove residents ps: I copied most of this from a hard working community member, so I want to give her credit here. We look forward to more people stepping up. Please edit as you wish and email this form letter to council ASAP! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- jfroese@tol.ca; krichter@tol.ca ; parnason@tol.ca ; cfox@tol.ca; blong@tol.ca ; msparrow@tol.ca ; aquaale@tol.ca ; bwhitmarsh@tol.ca ; ddavis@tol.ca Dear Mayor and Councillors: Re: Agenda Item F1, Recommendation by Staff and Truck Route Review: I am shocked that you would propose such a major change to Langley Township, and to my neighbourhood specifically, at an afternoon Council Meeting, on a provincial election day, where the recommendation will not receive the public scrutiny it warrants. I am shocked and dismayed that the recommendation by staff does not include either public consultation or public engagement as a component of the recommendation. A “public information session” is not the same thing and given the thousands of dollars the Township has spent on public engagement, I would expect staff to know and understand the difference. The Mayor's "EngageTOL" is a sham! I am shocked and outraged that staff treats the designation of a truck route in my community in the same way it treats the removal of a truck route designation in another community. The adverse impact on health and safety of the respective proposals are not the same for residents in each community. I will hold this government liable for the future deaths and suffering incurred as a result of ignoring the Walnut Grove Community Plan land use policy and safety requirements. I am also shocked that the 200 + page Truck Route Review generated by the staff, some portions of the report which were written in 2011, has taken this many months to present to Council. This report certainly does not address all of the concerns members of my Walnut Grove community have been informing council of for the past year and appears to concentrate its efforts on getting rid of trucks from Fort Langley and moving them to Walnut Grove, past two elementary schools. I ask that council delay its vote on the recommendation until members of the public directly affected by this change in land use have the opportunity to analyze the truck route review and weigh in on its assumptions and conclusions. I request that council not make any modifications or amendments to the Highway and Traffic Bylaw until all interested parties are heard from. I submit that a Health and Safety Impact Assessment be completed and shared with the affected communities before the Land Use bylaw in the Walnut Grove Community Plan is changed through proper public engagement to accommodate such a change. I submit that the designation of a 216th street as truck route should not be considered separately from any traffic calming measures for Telegraph Trail and the portions of 216th street in front of the two elementary schools – not to treat them as integral to one another is irresponsible and incurs liability on the TOL and the Province to compensate those who will be injured in this blatant disregard for health and safety despite the community outcry to stop this insanity! Respectfully, YOUR NAME Walnut Grove