Fort Langley is the birthplace of British Columbia. The price of homes in this Langley neighborhood are some of the highest in the district. Some houses hitting almost $1.5M for a teardown. The new houses going up are monstrous modern models that aren’t keeping with the heritage feel that the council wants to force elsewhere.

Usually I enjoy visiting Fort Langley. But lately it just doesn’t have the luster it once had. Mainly because of the shops, or rather, the lack there of.

Walking down Glover Road in Fort Langley, you’d think the place was turning into a ghost town. This is the main drag of the town. What once had small businesses and shoppes, is now an eyesore with many storefronts boarded up. One developer isn’t getting his way with the council, so he is making a statement. The council wants a style of building to represent Fort Langley, but it isn’t the same vision the developer has.

Personally, I like what the developer has done with his other properties. It has enhanced the feel of Fort Langley. One of my favorite restaurants is in one of his storefronts. It’s a shame that there isn’t a resolution in the foreseeable future.

Fort Langley has always been important to me. I proposed to my wife at a coffee shop in Fort Langley while a tv show being filmed. We got married in a lovely 100+ year old church while a movie across the road was being filmed. Our ceremony stopped film production and the crew came to watch our small wedding.

I don’t like seeing Fort Langley boarded up. The problem isn’t that the developer wants to make something ugly. In fact, many of the storefronts that are boarded up needed to be torn down decades ago. Instead, there was a temporary “facelift” done back in 2012. I want to see newer, nicer stores that welcome visitors to Fort Langley.

It is the birthplace of BC after all. Maybe the township council needs to give Fort Langley a Re-Birth.