Monday March 20, 2023 | LANGFORD, BC [Updated 10:50 pm]
by Mary P Brooke, Editor | Island Social Trends
Artificial turf was all the rage in the City of Langford starting around 2016 when the council of the day thought it would save on watering and also improve safety conditions for maintenance workers on city boulevards.
The new council (since the October 2022 election) prefers more natural options that are environmentally friendly; artificial turf is plastic which doesn’t help with carbon absorption as grass would and the plastic turf presents disposable issues after its lifespan (estimated as 10 to 15 years).
Council also learned from staff that the artificial turf requires about three times more maintenance than sod. That includes having to remove garbage, pet feces and weeds. When using herbicides to kill weeds that find their way into the artificial turf (from growing in bird droppings or that manage to pop through the turf underlay) that then requires a return visit by maintenance staff to remove the dead weeds.
The safety of maintenance staff on the boulevards — surrounded by often busy traffic flow — is naturally of top concern.
While there was a lot of public input and debate about the pros and cons of natural sod vs artificial turf, Mayor Scott Goodmanson reminded people later in the meeting (as the motion was before council for a vote) that the idea was to replace turf as it reached its natural lifespan, and also to remove the absolute requirement for artificial turf. Now there will be options.
In some cases it will still make sense to use artificial turf, such as along very busy highways or on steep or rocky terrain. But otherwise it sounds like this council will lean to installing natural grass in future whenever existing artificial turf is removed.
Given the state of the environment overall, going natural seems the right thing to do. Some members of the public suggested using native plant species that might handle the weather conditions of the west shore better than the decorative type of seasonable foliage that has frequently been chosen for visual appeal along roadways.
Visual appeal is still important for the overall look and feel of a modern growing city, and the new council may still need to consider that socioeconomic factor.
As to process … if the Mayor had earlier in the metin gexplained the reason for the motion being about removing the ‘absolute’ aspect of installing artificial turf, it might have saved an hour or so of public input that ended up in some cases being irrelevant or at least unnecessary.
Overall, this new council did hear a divided public — those who appreciate the pros and cons of both artificial turf and natural plantings. Perhaps that’s not surprising, given how the Langford voter base seems split into two distinct factions.
Langford Councillor comments:
- “Excited that this move will result in immediate & long term cost savings through maintenance. An excellent staff report highlights the huge rationale to support this recommendation.” ~ Colby Harder
- “It was a decision backed by 5 years of data from our staff. I’m so happy to be able to support this change for Langford.” ~ Kimberley Guiry
- “We’ve made an evidence-based decision here, including economic, social and environmental factors.” ~ Lillian Szpak
- “It’s an opportunity to start introducing native species.” ~ Mary Wagner
===== ABOUT ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS:
Island Social Trends has been covering municipal news entirely online at islandsocialtrends.ca since mid-2020 (previously as West Shore Voice News, 2014-2020).
Editor Mary P Brooke has been writing about socioeconomic community growth trends in the Sooke and west shore area since 2008 (MapleLine Magazine 2008-2010 and Sooke Voice News 2011-2013 before relocating to Langford to produce West Shore Voice News 2014-2020).
Traffic news updates | Premium Subscriptions
