A public hearing on the future of Cleveland Avenue quickly turned into a public hearing on the future of Squamish office space on Tuesday night.
Changes to three different bylaws are proposed. Possible changes include: limiting all downtown commercial parking cash-in-lieu buyouts to a four space maximum, to fund a new parking structure; architectural requirements for upper story setbacks and “density bonuses” that allow more height; and a requirement of a minimum of 20 per cent of a building’s gross floor area be used as employment space.
A handful of people spoke up on Feb. 13 in council chambers about the new bylaws intended to shape redevelopment on downtown’s main street, including developers, landowners, and a local architect.
The requirement for office space got the most feedback. “I’ve always felt we were striving towards a livable town, where people live upstairs and shop downstairs,” said Bjorn Meyer, owner of the building at 38065 Cleveland Avenue which currently houses Random Clothing.
“I think you’ll see a lot of vacancy signs for employment space,” he said.
Meyer said without people living in the street, Cleveland will be an empty downtown after shops close for the day.
His concern was echoed by other developers who prefer residential or mixed-use space.
Director of Planning Jonas Velaniskis said that the recommended policies, which reward developers for building employment space, rather than just residential, are meant to solve that issue.
“The district’s vision has always been having lots of people living downtown, to have enough people to support the services, jobs, restaurants, all those things that make downtowns viable,” he said. “In the last 10 years, we’ve approved a lot of developments that will end up adding thousands of people downtown. We’re worried there’s been such a focus on residential that it has taken away from the commercial. We want to make sure we’re moving the two alongside.”
Unlike Meyers, John Jarvis, a commercial advisor in Squamish, told councillors he was very optimistic about the policies promoting commercial space.
Jarvis said employment space is seriously lacking in the downtown core. In his work alone in the past decade, Jarvis said he’s turned away three “large-scale employers” from Vancouver who wanted to move into Squamish.
“They wanted to move downtown, they were in the range of 5,000 to 10,000 square feet, and we simply didn’t have options for them, so they went away. And that was sad because they were jobs when we needed them,” he said.
Jarvis reminded councillors and the audience that employment space can include any number of functions, not just office space – including educational businesses, art galleries, service providers or other commercial entities.
“These businesses will move in there, they will charge up the downtown area, especially Cleveland, and I just want to say your move to bring commercial spaces is really wise,” he said.
