Letter: Questions remain about Coles Valley

Published 1:30 am Monday, June 8, 2026

Editor,

I attended the June 1st Langley City Council meeting, remotely. I and 32 others weren’t able to comment. I’m left with four questions on the Coles project.

“Why does the annexation agreement need to be changed before the land sale?” If Habitat intends to purchase the property why not do a memorandum of understanding instead? Changing the annexation agreement before the sale makes a difference if SWLLC expects to sell the property to a market rate developer, because they can use the new agreement to insure they develop market rate homes.

“Who will be responsible for the development’s infrastructure?” If it’s the city, how will the city shoulder that financial burden? Especially since the City has challenges with its existing infrastructure. If this will be a homeowner’s association, how will that impact affordable housing?

“Why would SWLLC force the city to negotiate a change to the annexation agreement by threatening a lawsuit?” The city has worked with SWLLC on proposals to do development differently with SWLLC ending the proposal or ignoring the city’s requests for more information.

Lastly, Habitat for Humanity was present at the meeting yet did not speak in favor of the project. Why not? This seems to be a milestone project for them and one would expect them to be strongly supporting it. Not taking any opportunity to promote or even support the project makes it suspect that they are even close to supporting this at this point.

David Stenberg

Langley