A year of building big

A year of building big

Published 11:45 am Saturday, December 27, 2025

Dustin Worrall, president of Langley BMX, was delighted with the new pump track that officially opened on Nov. 20 in Yorkson Community Park.

“It’s huge, actually,” Worrall responded when asked how significant the facility is.

“What was there before was like a dirt jump kind of track, which was never used,” Worrall told the Langley Advance Times.

“I don’t know if you’ve seen how many kids are out at the pump track now, but especially for a growing area right there with all the condos going up, it’s huge. It’s heavily used. It’s good to have kids on bikes and outdoors rather than sitting behind video games.”

Pump track racing is a sport where riders traverse rollers, banked turns, and other features designed to be riden by “pumping” a bike with up and down body movements.

Like a lot of growing sports, it’s been struggling to find space.

Until the new Township track opened, there were two such facilities in the Langley area to accommodate pump track racers, one at Penzer park in Langley City, and a “very small one” at the Langley BMX track near George Preston Recreation Centre, Worall said.

A new pump track isn’t the only upgrade to Yorkson, which has also added a new spray park, washrooms, parking, a rugby field for Yorkson Middle School, 200 new trees, and what Mayor Eric Woodward describes as “the best playground the Township of Langley has ever built.”

Next year, more washrooms, picnic areas, Yorkson Creek Trail, and a half-kilometre walking track around the existing fields are in the works – depending on public consultation.

It’s just one of several ambitious projects in the Township, part of a sports building boom to provide more room for sports struggling to find space, especially those with younger athletes.

Woodward has noted Langley has the highest per capita youth population in Metro Vancouver, nearly triple that of Vancouver.

Kid need places to play, and the Township has been busy building those spaces.

Biggest is the $149-million expansion of the Langley Events Centre, set to open in September 2026, with three more ice sheets, two year-round dry floors, a 1,200-seat main arena, 380 underground stalls, a new restaurant, and outdoor plaza.

Local youth sports leagues are champing at the bit.

And there is the second phase of Smith Athletic Park in 2026, adding new soccer fields, including one indoors and a host of other improvements, on the way to becoming an education and youth soccer athletic campus.

Further down the road, a proposed new Willoughby Community Centre will include a 37.5-metre lap pool, which is expected to help reduce waits for kids swim lessons.