A group of residents aiming to brighten up downtown is on standby paintbrushes in hand.
Last week, the grassroots community improvement organization, Imagine Squamish, made a presentation to District of Squamish's council at a special business meeting about projects they want to undertake.
The group got its start last spring after a number of residents attended the district's first Downtown Transformation Initiative workshop. A Facebook group was organized, growing to include more than 100 members. Approximately 40 volunteers donated an estimated 240 hours cleaning up and beautifying downtown Squamish throughout the summer.
So many people donated their time and their energy as well, co-founder Tracey Saxby said. We had more than 25 businesses involved.
Organizers want to continue to harness the public's momentum, co-founder Deb McQueen said. The group outlined proposals that included everything from transforming the three posts sticking out of parking lot on the north side of Winnipeg and Cleveland Avenue into a community notice board to painting crosswalks and dedicating the painted triangles leading up to street parking into motorcycle parking.
Some of the projects have impacts on municipal bylaws, chief administrative officer Corien Speaker said, adding the district has a permit process to enable people to paint on its streets.
At this point, staff don't have any major concerns with it, she said, noting Imagine Squamish's proposal uses temporary paint.
The group and municipal staff should work together to complete the various other projects, Speaker said.
Motorcycle parking within the parking triangles won't be simple to achieve, Coun. Ted Prior warned.
There's parking regulations and highways and there's all these things, so some of them are going to be harder to deal with, he said.
