How a development gets approved in Langley

A sign goes up on a fenced lot, and a year or three later there’s a building. In between come a string of approvals, some from council and some from staff. Here’s the path in both Langleys, and where neighbours get a say.

It starts with the plan

Every municipality has an Official Community Plan (OCP), the big map of what should go where. The Township’s 2025 update was adopted after a public hearing on December 1, 2025, and below it sit neighbourhood plans for places like Brookswood-Fernridge, Walnut Grove and Willoughby. The City’s OCP dates from 2021, with the Nicomekl River District Neighbourhood Plan attached.

Zoning is the detailed rulebook for each lot: uses, height, density, setbacks. A project that already fits its zoning skips rezoning and goes straight to permits.

Talking to planners, then applying

In the Township, a planner aims to answer a pre-application request within 30 days. The application then goes in online, gets posted on the Development Activity page and is reviewed by staff. For a rezoning, a sign must go up on the site within 30 days. The City works the same way, and adds its Advisory Design Panel, which includes residents, to comment on how the building looks.

Rezoning: three readings, then adoption

A rezoning is a bylaw, and bylaws pass in stages: first, second and third reading, then final adoption. Council can stop it at any stage. The City’s guide calls third reading “approval in principle”. Before adoption, the developer works through a to-do list: in the Township, things like a servicing agreement, a letter of credit, road dedications and fees.

If the project doesn’t fit the plan, a plan amendment bylaw travels with the rezoning, and the Township says the rezoning can only be adopted after it.

When there’s a public hearing, and when there isn’t

Provincial housing legislation adopted November 30, 2023 (the date the City’s notices give) changed this. Section 464 of the Local Government Act now says:

• An OCP bylaw or amendment needs a public hearing.
• A rezoning that is consistent with the OCP doesn’t need one.
• If that rezoning is for a project that is at least half housing by floor area, a hearing is not allowed.
• A bylaw passed only to allow small-scale multi-unit housing can’t have a hearing either.

When a hearing happens, it comes after first reading and before third. When there’s no hearing, the Province requires a published notice 3 to 10 days before first reading, and mailed notice at least 10 days ahead to nearby owners and tenants when use or density changes.

In the Township, no-hearing rezonings go to an afternoon council meeting, often for three readings at once. The notice says “There are no speaking opportunities”, and comments go to [email protected], usually by noon that day. On April 13, 2026, for example, a 58-lot rezoning on the 23700 block of 56 Avenue went that route, while a Smith Neighbourhood Plan amendment for 7342 208 Street went to a 7 pm hearing the same day.

In the City, a January 2024 notice for a six-storey building said the City “must not hold a Public Hearing” because the project fit the OCP’s Transit-Oriented Residential designation. Written comments went to [email protected] by a set deadline. OCP amendments still get hearings: the memo for Bylaw 3305, a six-storey, 302-unit rental project on 200 Street, says a hearing will be held under section 464.

Small-scale housing and the SkyTrain areas

Small-scale multi-unit housing (SSMUH) means three or four homes on what used to be a single-family lot. The Township’s zoning changes were adopted November 18, 2024: three units on lots up to 280 m², four on lots from 280 m² to one acre. The zoning now allows it, but a building permit and usually a development permit are still needed. The City’s version, Bylaw 3284, went to council on June 3, 2024 with no hearing, citing section 464(4), and added a “Plex-Home” to its single-detached zones.

Transit-oriented areas are rings, 800 m around a SkyTrain station and 400 m around a bus exchange, where councils must allow provincial minimum heights and densities and can’t require residential parking. The provincial list includes the planned 196 Street and 203 Street stations and the Langley Centre bus exchange. The Township’s one ring surrounds the Willowbrook station on 196 Street, with 8 to 20 storeys allowed depending on distance. The City’s Bylaw 3284 covered its two planned stations and the exchange. More in the SkyTrain explainer.

The permits that follow

• Development permit. An OCP can mark development permit areas for form and character, environment, hazards or farm protection, and inside one you can’t build without this permit. City council approves it at final adoption. The Township lets staff issue some (SSMUH and smaller residential projects, for example) under Bylaw 5246, though three council members can call one up.
• Development variance permit. Council can relax rules like setbacks or height by resolution, but can’t change use or density. Neighbours get mailed notice at least 10 days before council decides. Councils can hand minor variances to staff by bylaw.
• Subdivision. Lot lines are approved by the Approving Officer under the Land Title Act, not council. In the Township, its decision letter is good for 12 months.
• Building permit. Last step, and it has to be issued before construction starts.

Where to read applications and speak up

The Township’s Development Activity map and portal and the City’s Development Application Portal show active files with status, plans and staff contacts. Our guide to following development applications covers alerts and contacts.

For a Township hearing, register at tol.ca/speakers until 6:00 pm on the day, or sign up in person after that. Written submissions are accepted until the hearing closes, and not after. For the City, follow the deadline in each notice. See also how to read a council agenda and how to attend council meetings. Farmland follows its own path: the ALR, explained. And for the fees a project pays along the way, who pays for growth? DCCs, CACs and ACCs, explained.

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