The shore is within sight for the Oceanfront development.
Council adopted several final bylaws essential to the close of the sale of the 105-acre waterfront property to Newport Beach Developments at the council meeting on Tuesday evening.
The purchase and sale agreement was set to be signed off on Wednesday, after press deadline.
The District of Squamish Municipal Share agreement, the Development Cost Charge Frontender Agreement Authorization and the Phased Development Agreement were adopted. Third readings of the agreements were passed at a special council meeting held Sunday.
The phased development agreement was cleared for adoption by the provincial inspector of municipalities on Tuesday.
These final adoptions conclude all preconditions of the sale with the exception of subdivision, according to Linda Glenday, acting Squamish chief administrative officer.
The subdivision will be registered with the Land Titles Act and the sale will close following that, likely by end of this month, Glenday said.
Last summer, Matthews Southwest and Bethel Lands Corp. (now Newport Beach Developments Limited Partnership) agreed to buy the land from the Squamish Oceanfront Development Corporation - an offshot of the district - for $15 million.
The close of a deal has been a long time coming.
The original close of the sale was set for April, but various complications, including stalls related to industry concerns about complaints from neighbours, delayed the final sign-off on the sale.
About a decade ago District of Squamish received the former Nexen Chlor-Alkali Plant waterfront property from the provincial government.
In 2006 a deal with Qualex-Landmark failed in the 11th hour after the developer walked away from the project.
Mayor Patricia Heintzman joked that she was the last person standing who has been around since the start of the waterfront development dream.
“I was on the Oceanfront board over 10 years ago,” she said, adding that in about 2004, when it was announced the district would be getting the waterfront lands from the province, a professor from Queen’s University who had been involved in several waterfront developments around the world did a presentation in Squamish.
“He said, ‘You know these oceanfront properties are highly politicized, they are highly charged because there are so many competing interests and everyone has a different vision of what should happen’… He said, ‘I bet you won’t get anything done before 10 years.’ I think I literally said, ‘Yeah, but we are going to be different.’”
