It may not be lights out for Metro Vancouver’s last drive-in movie theatre after all.
Township of Langley councillors voted Monday to explore ways the municipality could potentially help keep Aldergrove’s Twilight Drive-In in business.
Earlier this month, the drive-in announced it would shut down after the 2024 season.
The owners said due to a 26- per cent property tax increase over the last three years, their landlord had decided not to renew their lease.
Township Mayor Eric Woodward said that scenario would be a loss to the community.
“Right now 16.8 per cent of their customer base is Langley-Aldergrove — that means over 80 per cent comes from the region, from Abbotsford to Vancouver, to Chilliwack and even as far away as Vancouver Island,” he said.
“To me this sort of stands out as a great, unique destination for Aldergrove and merits some special consideration.”
Woodward said there was nothing the municipality could do about property taxes and that any help would need to be careful not to set a precedent.
But he said there still could be ways the township could help.
“This really stands out as something we need to do for Aldergrove and all of the people who have expressed how much they care and value this as part of Langley,” he said.
“Hopefully the only precedent it sets is that we care and that we get things done.”
The Twilight Drive-In opened in 2005, two years after the family that owns it shut down operations at Surrey’s Hillcrest Drive-In.
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