Langley City council is seeking applications of interest in developing the Langley Prairie school site.

While the City is calling the applications a “public offering,” Mayor Peter Fassbender says what the City is actually doing is measuring interest from the development community in the property.

Some residents are suspicious, saying that it sounds like a done deal, but Fassbender insists that council has not made up its mind on any specific plans for the site. It wants to hear what the community has to say, and it wants to know what, if anything, the business community would do with the property.

The City has never suggested that it would hold on to the school site. which was purchased last year from Langley School District. It sees the land as a strategic piece of property at the west entrance to the City, and in a City that is being redeveloped instead of developed, what goes on that site sets an important tone for the rest of the downtown area.

What has caught the attention of some people is the language within the tender document, stating that a high-rise of up to 24 storeys could go on the site. Langley has no buildings that come close to that height, and any step in that direction is a major one.

It seems unlikely that such a high-rise would be built on the site. Soil conditions in Langley City’s downtown aren’t too conducive to high-rises, although engineers undoubtedly can find a way to make it work.

What is more problematic for a high-rise is this — is there a market for such a project in Langley City? It doesn’t seem so at this point in time. While condominiums are popular, most people who are interested in living in the City seem to have little interest in high-rises.

The best place for the first high-rises in Langley to be built would be along a major transportation corridor, such as 200 Street or Highway 1. Such a development also needs excellent transit service.

No such place exists in Langley today, although the bus service along Fraser Highway to the SkyTrain line in Surrey has improved.

City residents should not let the idea of the high-rise blind them to other proposals for the site. What happens there will set a tone for the City for years to come. They need to keep paying attention to the issue.

— Frank Bucholtz