Plan

This 2019 plan is in conflict with Langley's Comprehensive Plan submitted in 2018 to Washington State. In the plan, Langley claims, "the city has adequate land within the city limits for our needs for the next 20 years." Currently (2016) the population in Langley is 1,135 people. the proposed annex would accommodate about 300 people, or 26% of Langley's population. This is the definition of sprawl - large population expansion without plans for infrastructure.

International land developers, Trillium Group purchased 40 acres on the east and west sides of Coles Road in 1988 from Georgia Pacific for $50,000. In 2005 the property was sold to an ex-Trillium executive (Bob Libolt) who annexed the property into the City of Langley to build 24 homes. Under this annex, 15 of these acres would be given to Langley, 13 acres would be shared by the development residences, and the remaining 12 would be sub-divided into the 24 home lots.

In April 2010 the Bob Libolt and Ken Hertz created "South Whidbey, LLC" and transferred the property into the new company. In 2017, these developers listed the property for sale at $1.6M. In 2019, the developers decided to break the property into 7 smaller parcels that would be easier to sell. To facilitate this, they are now requesting Langley to rewrite the annex agreement to allow for 116 homes on 7 parcels totaling 12.82 acres. Each of these parcels would range from about 20 residences per acre to 4 residences per acre. The concept was planned out by a well-known Langley architect known for designing small living spaces. His involvement, however, is limited to promotion and overall initial concept layout. All design for each of the 7 parcels would be left up to individual developers or contractors.

Access from this site to Langley would be strictly by car, since it is 1.5 miles along Coles Road from the town center.

The town of Langley has a strong demand for affordable & workforce housing, which makes a project that includes "small" housing appealing on the surface, because it implies that it may include low-cost housing. Because the parcels will be sold to for-profit developers, there is no control over the quality, market price, or aesthetic appeal of the houses. Currently, this architect has properties locally with layouts similar to this design selling for $300-$550/SQFT plus $250/mo home owner association (HOA) dues.

The City of Langley has identified many needs and desires, which include activity space for movement & exercise, meetings, parties, and neighborhood gathering, a “green building school”, another “maker’s” workshop, a wellness center, a dog park, a community gardens, and co-work spaces. The proposal includes spaces for all of these, but will not bind the future developers to provide them. This means that the developers would have to build these and spread their cost across the residences they build. They would also have to cover the maintenance costs into the HOA dues. This is the paradox of the design - how to provide these enticing amenities which are appealing to the city, and still keep it affordable. This paradox is not addressed in the plan, in fact, by selling the parcels off to individual contractors, it discourages the chances of getting these.

The city would like a network of connected walking trails from town to this property through neighboring land-owners' properties, but these property owners have indicated they are not interested in the traffic and liability that comes with easement for hundreds of people. Besides, the trip from this property into town would be a couple of miles - not the most foot-commutable route.

The plan does not consider many of the infrastructure costs that a future board of city council members would have to levy on taxpayers of Langley:

• enforcement of agreements established under the agreement with the developers (protection of wet lands, buffer areas, etc.) in past projects non-profits had to step in to provide oversight and enforcement.
• sewage treatment plant expansion, as this development would exceed 80% capacity of the plant
• expansion of water system and additional water demand to service this neighborhood
• traffic light controlled interchange at Coles Rd and Brooks Hill Rd
• traffic light controlled interchange at Hwy 525 at Coles Rd
• expansion of Coles Rd into the adjacent wetland to allow for pedestrian traffic into town
• cost of maintaining Langley's annexed section of Coles Rd (plowing, maintenance, and repair)
• maintenance of the sections of this development that Langley will own and maintain