Landowner asks Langley Township to lift ban on building on his property

No-build covenant means 3-acre site valued at just $10K

Landowner asks Langley Township to lift ban on building on his property Published 11:45 am Tuesday, July 14, 2026 A Langley landowner asked Township council for permission to build a house on his south Brookswood property, which thanks to a no-build covenant has an assessed value of just over $10,000. Kal Bains appeared before council on Monday, July 13, to ask for the no-build covenant to be lifted from the 2.99-acre lot he has owned since 2017, at the southeast corner of 206 Street and 24 Avenue, in the Glenwood area.

Almost 10 years after he bought the tree-covered property, Bains wants to sell it, but because of the restrictive covenant, which prevents any construction on the site, he has no takers. The covenant appears to have reduced the property’s value to a tiny fraction of neighbouring lots. According to BC Assessment, the lot is valued at just $10,316, and has been for at least four years.

Its value in 2019 was assessed at $3.6 million, and neighbouring properties of similar size are assessed at values of around $3 to $4 million today. A covenant is a specific restriction or obligation that can be placed on a piece of property. Restrictive covenants can control the number or size of dwellings, or can prevent certain land uses.

“The amount of debt on that property has doubled for me,” said Bains, who acknowledged that he knew of the covenant when he bought the land. Bains said at various times since he bought the land he has considered building a home on it himself, and he appealed to the Township in 2019 for permission to lift the restrictive covenant so he could move his family there. But financial circumstances at the time led him to abandon the plans.

It was unclear whether council in 2019 had actually approved a plan for Bains to build on the property, or whether that process had merely been started, but not finalized. Bains believed he had permission to build a house for his own use at the time. Mayor Eric Woodward said he believed the council back then had not approved the plan, but had perhaps suggested it was an option Bains could pursue.

The origin of the no-build covenant was not entirely clear, but Bains said it has something to do with a division of a larger lot, from which this parcel was subdivided. Woodward said his understanding was that the subdivision of the larger property was approved back in the 2010s, under the condition that the second property would not be developed into another single-family home, so the covenant was placed upon it. Bains said that he doesn’t see a reason for the covenant, and that anyone who would buy it now would be doing so to build a home to live in.

“Right now, like I said, it’s a financial hardship for me and nobody’s buying it.” Both Bains and the councillors noted that the property is in the Glenwood neighbourhood – the only area of Brookswood that has not yet been opened up to redevelopment. If the redevelopment plans affect the covenant, it might still be years before that change comes.

Council considered referring the matter to staff for more information, but in a 5-4 vote, they rejected that plan, with the mayor and Councillors Tim Baillie, Steve Ferguson, Michael Pratt, and Rob Rindt opposed.