The waterfront at Furry Creek is getting a little extra shoring up.
Work is happening to add riprap material to the shoreline in the Oliver’s Landing area as a mitigation measure against erosion of the bayside area.
Initially, the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District considered funding the project from either Area D amenity funds or a Furry Creek diking-drainage fund.
Area D director Tony Rainbow said the SLRD opted for funding from a mixture of the two funds.
“The work’s actually happening right now,” he said, adding Adler Contracting, which started the work this month, hopes to be done by Christmas.
The SLRD also negotiated with Fisheries and Oceans officials about when the work could be done.
As well, the Oliver’s Landing Kayak and Boat Club informed the SLRD, according to a regional document, that it is planning to commit $8,000 toward the project to prevent erosion at the site on the north side.
According to an SLRD report, the original plan was to install riprap around the tip of the spit on the south side of the bay area at Oliver’s Landing, although a technical memorandum from 2015 recommended shoring up the north side too.
“It’s a little piece of Crown land that sort of juts out there,” Rainbow said, adding the SLRD has a right-of-way underneath the site for a sewage pipe.
“What we’re interested in doing is preserving that spit because of the sewer pipe,” he said.
The SLRD report refers to work needed on the south side of the bay area, in part, because of the sewer pipe but also because of a viewing platform out into Howe Sound.
Rainbow said that when the development at Oliver’s Landing was first built, the developer built a deck on the end of the spit. Due to strong wind and tides over the years, the site has been eroding.
“The actual deck was being threatened,” Rainbow said. “If we hadn’t done anything, then it would’ve disappeared. It just would’ve been washed away eventually.”
The SLRD wanted to preserve the site, which Rainbow said is actually used more by people who do not live at Oliver’s Landing.
“It is a public amenity,” he said. “The SLRD put some benches on it a couple of years ago, so you can stay on there in the summer and relax.”
He described the whole area as a “little complicated,” particularly in the area residents call the marina and where, for years, they have been parking their boats.
“Actually, it isn’t a marina. It’s a catchment basin for a potential debris flow down Furry Creek,” he said. “That’s what it’s designed for. That’s what its main function is.”
The SLRD called for an additional $17,000 of funding to expand the mitigation of the shore to the north side in part to help it protect the spit. The original budget for the work on the spit and lookout area was $20,000.
As well, Burrard Development is planning to build 10 new townhouses in the Oliver’s Landing complex, so SLRD staff felt it made sense to add the riprap to the north side now because access to the site will be impeded once the townhouses are constructed.
