It wasn’t a big group, but those who came were passionate about their vision for Squamish.
About 30 Squamish Nation members were at Totem Hall Monday night for a District of Squamish 2040 visioning event.
About 350 local residents had attended the first visioning open house event at the West Coast Railway Heritage Park Jan. 30. Like the first event, the goal Monday evening was to get big picture input from Squamish residents on what they would like to see in Squamish in the future. The input will help the district overhaul district’s Official Community Plan.
“We are trying to hit all the different parts of the community,” said Jonas Velaniskis, the district’s director of development services. “We’ve done this with the big open house, engagement with the school, we’ve done engagement with district staff on a similar basis and this is the final piece of phase one.”
Rose Williams, whose four-year old daughter Holly was enjoying the snacks and stickers provided as her mom looked at the poster boards, had several ideas for what she would like to see improved in Squamish.
“We definitely need more affordable housing,” Williams said. Her 25-year-old newly married daughter wasn’t able to find anywhere to live in the district that was affordable, so the couple is currently living in a trailer, Williams said.
“They are both working here in Squamish, but that is all they can afford.”
Williams, who has lived in Squamish since 1983, would also like to see the Brennan Park Recreation Centre upgraded and more green spaces for children, “just for them to run around and play,” she said.
On a white board, comments left by attendees included, “LNG: help us stop killing our waters, killing our lands,” “Seniors need help getting to medical appointments in Vancouver,” and “No more big developments, our land is not for sale.”
Educator, historian and cultural ambassador Alice Guss also spent time at each station providing her opinions. She told The Squamish Chief she’d like to see more activities for families in Squamish. “We miss the bowling alley and we miss the theatre. It is really hard for young ones to do things around here,” she said.
Another bone of contention for Guss are the recreation tourists who arrive in the summer and live along the river. “There are so many people who squat on our rivers, those are all the hikers, the mountain climbers, the kiteboarders,” she said, adding her family swims in local rivers every summer and she is concerned about pollution in the water from tourists using the rivers as their toilet and garbage can.
Guss would also like to see a bus to the Stawamus reserve, as there used to be, and she’d like the Squamish Public Library to stay open longer.
According to district staff, phase two of the Official Community Plan review will involve taking all that was learned from participants in phase one and drilling down to find options and tradeoffs. Staff will create workbooks that residents can fill out during group meetings.
“Anyone can get together a group of people, get a pizza and work through the workbook,” Velaniskis said of one of the phase two activities set to be rolled out.
The total budget for the OCP review is $224,190 for 2016, according to the district.
