District of Squamish is getting a new portable that will cost up to $250,000.
Council voted Tuesday night to purchase the modular unit that will provide office space for current and future district staff.
As it stands, district staff are tripping over each other due to a lack of workspace in the current facility, according to chief administrative officer Corien Becker.
“We have a number of new positions coming into municipal hall, where we don’t have space to house them,” said Becker. “With all the additional work that we see coming down at us, particularly with the Squamish Oceanfront Development Corporation development, we know that we need additional space to actually house the people to do the work.”
There are long-term plans to build a new municipal hall but not for at least five years, so in the meantime something has to be done, Becker said.
Currently 25 employees share 12 offices, according to district general manager of corporate services Robin Arthurs.
The project will be funded from the district’s land sale reserve fund.
The portable can either be sold when the new hall is built or repurposed somewhere else in the district such as at the district works yard, which is also in need of more office space, said Becker.
Councillor Doug Race said he supported the motion because municipal hall’s space has already been reconfigured several times.
“There are a lot of space pressures,” he said. “If the pressures that we are seeing now continue for any length of time, it would be necessary to hire additional staff to meet our growing needs and this is the place to put them. There is nowhere to put them in here.”
The estimated operating costs for the new space were not immediately available from district staff.
Only Mayor Patricia Heintzman voted against the motion, saying that other creative solutions could have been found to make room.
The portable will be placed in the parking lot between the library and municipal hall, thus displacing about seven parking stalls. Other parking options are being considered.
