Wednesday February 26, 2020 ~ LANGFORD
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
A less structured, more informational style of council meeting was held by City of Langford Mayor and Council on Tuesday evening, February 25 officially at 5 pm.
Gathered at the City Centre Grille, Mayor Stew Young felt the more casual atmosphere with a crowd of about 150 Langford business people, movers and shakers packed into the restaurant was the right environment for launching the next big phase of economic and sociocultural development of the growing west shore metropolis.
It was a good mixer for various sectors of the business and development community, and a way for the long-time mayor to announce with podium-style pizzazz every aspect of the new rollout of amenities.
In followup to an embargoed but leaked announcement from the day before about joining up with the Maritime Museum of BC and the rollout of the new Pacific Maritime Centre (maritime museum, office tower, performing arts centre, planetarium and more), there was genuine importance to the public moment where the City of Langford Mayor Young and Chief Administrative Officer Darren Kiedyk signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Maritime Museum of BC representatives.
The museum was represented that evening by Captain John Clarkson, Chair, and Executive Director David Leverton.
With Mayor Young at the brief council meeting portion of the event were Councillors Denise Blackwell, Matt Sahlstrom, Norma Stewart, Lillian Szpak, and Roger Wade (Lanny Seaton absent).
Community leadership in the crowd showed a mix and crossover of business, development, sports, governance, and media. Among them: Jim Hartshorne of Seacliffe Developments (whose company donated the land for the Maritime Museum of BC and performing arts center combo), Rugby Canada hall of famer Gareth Rees, Royal Roads University Director of Business Development Dale Gann, Pacific FC CEO Rob Friend and Operations VP Brad Norris-Jones, Westshore Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Julie Lawlor, SD62 Chair Ravi Parmar, Hans Fredericksen of the Langford-Juan de Fuca Constituency Office of the Hon John Horgan, and Shannon Russell of the BC Premier’s office.
Among the local media were representatives of Black Press and West Shore Voice News. Coverage was done the following day by CTV News.
There, no doubt, for the announcement about the iconic planetarium feature aspect of the new Pacific Maritime Center was long-time science journalist and author Bob McDonald.
Other amenities were announced by the Mayor and presented in more detail by project representatives including Olympian Dave Calder for the Rowing BC aspect of the Langford oceanfront property at Finlayson Arm (where on-water training and educational programs will be held), for Boxing BC’s new facility (behind Westhills Stadium), the Jordie Lunn Bike Park (Humpback/Irwin Road area), and Rock Climbing Wall (in City Centre Park). All of these sports-related projects are becoming available within a one-year period, something the Mayor is very pleased about.
There were announcements by Rugby Canada (the May 2 and 3 Rugby Canada Womens Sevens game at Westhills Stadium) and Pacific FC (2020 men’s professional soccer season at Westhills Stadium and nearby indoor training centre for community use).
The estimated cost to build the Pacific Maritime Centre is $57 million while the estimated cost to building the Performing Arts Theatre is $30 million. Funding sources are anticipated to include fundraising, tenant lease agreements and federal government infrastructure programs.
A further $4 million will need to be spent by the City of Langford to relocate a hydro pole further away from the Westhills Stadium in order to increase the stadium seating capacity for more ticket revenue and better camera angles for national sports broadcast. Moving the pole has long been in the works; for several years it’s been a matter of funding as well as establishing the project as a priority with BC Hydro which would need to do the design and technical relocation work.
Langford was keen to announce their new branding style, including representations of various aspects of community amenities, and a new slogan “Langford – Where it all happens”. The branding rollout was presented at the podium by Donna Petrie who is the City of Langford’s Manager of Business Development and Events.
Mayor Young was pleased that the entire rebranding process cost the City only $15,000. Some of the swag given away at the February 25 meeting event included mugs (with the more edgy slogan of ‘Get Sh#t Done’) and black sloganed T shirts.