“Well, it’s about time Squamish became an oceanfront community.”
The words were said to me by a friend upon hearing that we’d finally completed the sale of the oceanfront lands.
The District of Squamish acquired the oceanfront lands for $3 from BC Rail properties 11 years ago. Back then, as part of the process to begin envisioning our oceanfront community, the Fraser Basin Council and UBC Design Centre for Sustainability were hired to lead a comprehensive community design Charrette process to start us off on the right path. And as part of that process, they brought in David Gordon of Queen’s University, an expert in waterfront redevelopment, to give us a primer on what was to come.
It was incredibly interesting and exciting for a community to begin imagining the possibilities of connecting to its oceanfront. Gordon brought us on a figurative exploration of waterfronts around the world. He got us pumped about the opportunity here and then he dropped the bomb. He said it would probably take at least 10 years before we would see any real action on our oceanfront and very likely it would take 20 years. He explained how political gridlock and competing interest played havoc on the waterfront redevelopments of New York’s Battery Park and Toronto’s Central Waterfront and Queen’s Quay and pretty much every other waterfront revitalization project across the globe. He outlined the relatively rapid success of Barcelona’s waterfront renewal but explained it was the exception catalyzed by the 1992 Olympics. He said we were on the right path putting the perimeter walkway in to access the beach because people need to become emotionally connected and invested in its success and progress. But, Gordon said, even with our optimism and good intentions, it would take a decade or longer to become reality.
But we’d be different, I argued. He smiled, amused at my sincere yet naive optimism and said, “Call me in 10 years and we’ll see where you’re at.”
Eleven years later, we have finally rezoned the former industrial chemical plant site and sold the 100-plus acres of land and waterlots at the oceanfront to a developer ready to deliver our collective vision. There was little fanfare and ceremony and strangely enough, relatively little public comment and involvement in the process over the past four months, particularly considering the magnitude of the project and its importance in our community’s evolution. At first this concerned me because one always wants a community engaged in such important issues. Then it dawned on me. Perhaps we’ve finally come of age and our collective ambitions are aligned?
I haven’t called Gordon yet to acknowledge his prophetic musings; I still don’t want to jinx it.
