Squamish could have the beginning of a green park on its waterfront by the spring of next year.
Last week, the District of Squamish, Matthews Southwest (MSW) and Bethels Lands Corp. announced a final purchase and sale agreement was struck on the 59-acre property on the community’s waterfront. The developers hope to have the conditions of the sale met by spring of next year. Construction would kick off after all the “T”s are crossed and “I”s dotted, Southwest’s president Jack Matthews told the Squamish Chief. The first step of the development would be the construction of a $5 million park, an environmental requirement to cap a mercury plume left from the site’s industrial days. Initial designs included a beach for kiteboarders.
“The power of that site is the way it connects the district to the water,” Matthews said.
Developers will pay for the multitude of infrastructure need for the site, whether that’s cash over hand or through the municipality’s development cost charges.
“The good news is taxpayers won’t be paying for it.”
Southwest anticipates having the project’s permitting in place by April. The company plans to start the initial development, but isn’t closed to other companies taking on different pieces of the overall project, Matthews said.
“We generally fill in the pieces that need doing,” he said.
The oceanfront may open the door to other Southwest projects in Squamish. The development will transform the landscape of the community, inviting people to stop in town, rather than driving through, Matthews said.
“I think it starts to feed on itself,” he said.
This is a monumental step for the district, Mayor Rob Kirkham said. The project is set to transform the downtown core.
“It is something we have been looking forward to,” he said.
Unlike previous oceanfront plans, this one has the community’s vision laid out in the Oceanfront Peninsula Sub Area Plan, a scheme the developer must follow, Kirkham noted. A change in council seats following the November municipal election shouldn’t impact that component of the project, nor the direction of the project overall, he said. The plan was pieced together with the support of the community and the remaining pieces of the puzzle will all be voted on in public, Kirkham noted. New councillors will be brought up to speed on the process.
There are a lot of conditions attached to the sale, Coun. Patricia Heintzman said. These includes terms such as figuring out tax exemptions for the area, which are currently in play for the downtown revitalization program.
“Some of them might come through at the end of this [council] term,” Heintzman said, noting the municipality’s development cost charge policy is close to finished.
The community has dictated what it expects to see built on the oceanfront in the sub-area plan — which calls for one third park, one third residential and one third commercial development.
“So because we have set these parameters it is not your average sale,” she said, adding the former industrial site will be “hugely expensive” to build upon.
