LANGLEY — Halfway through the effort to update the city’s plan for growth, the Langley city council gave its volunteer planners a big thumbs up for the work they’ve accomplished so far.

Councilman Robert Gilman, the executive team leader for the comp plan, said reorganizing the planning group and implementing changes will be the name of the game in 2007. It’s now time to delve into the details, he said.

“We are about halfway through the comp plan process and work on shifting from a community-visioning phase to a phase that will be more directly focused on the specifics of the comp plan updates,” Gilman said.

The comp plan is the document that will guide growth and development in Langley over the next two decades. The goal of the next phase of the plan is to create a set of recommended updates for the council to review by September.

A numbers of committees will merge. “The major changes we are suggesting involve merging some of the committees to help provide the focus and coordination for this next phase,” Gilman said.

Also, in keeping with focusing on updating the comp plan, the work of the committees will shift to more specific research and data gathering, plus identifying how city regulations will be reworded.

In some cases, the committees will also look at implementation strategies, including identifying potential partners and sources of grants and other funding.

The number of committees will drop in the coming months. The Watersheds and Bluffs, Food and Agriculture, and Waterfront committees will be integrated into the Land-Use committee. The Arts, Culture and Education and the Economic Development committees will also merge.

Councilwoman Rene Neff was pleased. “From the Arts and Entertainment committee’s view, a lot of what we’re talking about goes well with the economic development (committee),” she said.

Another change will be made to the Parks and Open Space and the Energy committees, which will be focusing on preparing potential code and implementation strategies. The Parks and Open Space Committee has indicated the current comp plan goals and policies are pretty good, Gilman said.

The Energy Committee does have some comp plan suggestions, but those will be easily integrated into the sustainability element of the plan — a new addition to the comp plan.

“We see this as a short, summary element that has simple, high-level goals and policies drawn from most of the committees, with a special emphasis on energy,” Gilman said.

The land-use chapter of the plan needs much updating, however, due to changing trends, Gilman said.

An important part of this work will be to divide the city and Urban Growth Area up into subareas and develop standards that can be used in each of the subareas.

The economic development chapter of the plan is also new.

Gilman said the Economic Development Committee has already made significant progress on identifying material for this element.

“To keep this manageable, we expect to focus on a vision similar to that which the committee described in their concept paper, and to leave more extensive analysis for coming years,” Gilman said. “There are grants we can only get if we have an economic development element.”

The goal is to diversify the economy, Langley officials said.

“It’s not wise to put all of our economic development eggs into one basket,” said Mayor Neal Colburn. “We need to keep an eye on growing the local economy.”

Colburn added that there are about 15,000 people living south of Classic Road, and Langley should be a shopping and business destination for people who live near the island’s traditional halfway point.

Much work has been already done for the housing section of the plan, and the team expects changes based on the housing report by former consultant Donna Keeler. Keeler identified the areas of town that have the most potential for development and identified what types of housing is needed.

“We want to answer how to serve the housing needs of the diverse population we want and have,” Gilman explained.

The transportation chapter of the growth plan was already updated late last year. Even so, the committee is continuing to examine parking issues and needed road connections.

Langley’s leaders agreed with the proposal to proceed, and the council voted to approve the road map for the planning process as presented.