Once, Britannia Beach was a mining town, but like so many company towns, when the industry closed, life slowed to a crawl.
That’s when developers at McKenzie Development Group stepped in, offering to take over the site.
It has been a long-term project – more than a decade – and it has been rolled out in different phases.
“We’re still waiting, we’re still here,” said the McKenzie Development Group’s Bill Baker.
Now, the McKenzie group is optimistic the last stage, which will see the development of a larger commercial area near the entrance to the community, can be completed.
Baker updated the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District board at a recent meeting on plans. He said there might be some final processes to complete down the road, but the fact that there is already infrastructure in place should help the development proceed toward completion.
Before this happens, though, the province has some work to decommission on old dam sites above the town to reduce concerns from runoff and debris flow.
“Once that’s done, they intend to develop the alluvial flats area,” said Area D Director Tony Rainbow.
Beyond the site mitigation, other issues have arisen, such as the highway layout through the community when the road was fixed for the 2010 Olympics, but Baker said some of these were beyond the scope of the developers.
In the earliest days of the project, the developers offered community residents who held leases on homes the chance to take over ownership of the sites, even offering financing as part of the deal. They even provided an old fire engine to the community.
“When we first got involved, there was no fire department,” Baker said.
McKenzie Development Group is not the only one that has staked a claim in the development of the community. Another developer, Taicheng Development Corporation, has been working on a large project for the area that could see the construction of up to 1,000 residential units.
“There’s some homes going in,” Rainbow said. “There will be a few developments up on the hillside.”
As to what the community will look like in the future, Baker said the intent is to make Britannia Beach look a little like the past by retaining “the spirit of the mining community” with trestles and lots of wooden structures.
Baker estimates there will be about 20 buildings in the central area when they are done, about twice the current number.
The plan is to bring in industry that fits with the area rather than simply service-sector businesses – for example, a bike manufacturer as opposed to tourist-trinket sellers.
As well, the residents have made it clear they do not want to become a truck stop town, so if amenities are added, this might take the form of something with a character that fits – for example, a small filling station with retro gas pumps as opposed to a multi-bay gas station to serve traffic passing through the area.
“They’re onside, waiting for it to happen. They want a little community there,” Baker said.
He complimented the regional district as well as provincial staff who have been working to expedite the development.
“The guys we’ve worked with the last year and a half have been super…. They’ve really been inclusive.”
While completion is off in the distance, Baker, now 67, can see the day when the project is done and he can break open a bottle of bubbly to celebrate.
Still, he thinks when the work is done, assuming it does not become cost-prohibitive, the project should breathe new life into the old community and will hold appeal for residents or visitors alike.
“There’s old mining towns all through Canada and the United States and where they’ve done it right, people just love it, and that’s what we’re trying to capture,” he said.
