The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District is considering making amendments to its Regional Growth Strategy, or RGS, that would apply to affordable housing and transportation, among other things.
First reading on the proposed amendments passed on April 18. The proposed changes were prompted as part of a periodic review that must occur every five years.
The changes are too numerous to name, but there are two areas that would likely be of interest to people in town, as they address pressing issues that have been top of mind for Squamish residents — affordable housing and transportation.
On the affordable housing front, certain language emphasizing that these homes should be for people of low to moderate income is being crossed out.
“Affordable housing is intended for households of low and moderate incomes — those that have household earning 80 per cent or less than the area’s median income reported by Statistics Canada in the previous Census,” reads the section that is being removed.
One of the clauses replacing that section says the RGS aspires to generate a diversity of housing types “for employees, seniors and people in need.”
SLRD planner Claire Daniels also said that the definition of affordable housing in the RGS is being changed to fit with BC Housing’s description of that type of home.
“Affordable housing means rental or ownership housing priced so that monthly payments are less than 30 per cent of gross household income,” reads the new RGS definition.
The language also favours “generat[ing]” affordable housing, as opposed to “support[ing]” it, which was the term used in the previous version of the RGS.
Electoral Area D director Tony Rainbow says this falls in line with the SLRD’s intentions to ask developers to include affordable housing in their projects.
“The idea behind the change, I think, is to signal, ‘Hey, we’re serious about this,’” Rainbow said.
Making a change in the document from supporting to generating affordable housing doesn’t necessarily mean the SLRD will start building its own affordable housing projects, he said, but it’s meant to show the regional district is recognizing it as a need.
With respect to amendments made regarding transportation, the RGS includes new sections that spell out preferred methods of transportation, as well as capital improvements that should be considered by the SLRD.
Among these preferred modes of transit are walking and cycling.
“To retrofit our roads would be enormously expensive, but when changes are being made, or new roads are being built, or whatever, we should pay attention to cycle lanes,” Rainbow said.
It also calls on the SLRD to examine the possibility of a high-speed rail service, a Sea to Sky regional transit service, a possible Squamish-Metro Vancouver marine service and carpool lots, among other things.
It also recognizes that Britannia Beach will need to address traffic flow problems, though Rainbow said that no specific projects are on the way to fix this at the moment.
It also floats the possibility of connecting Highway 99 to downtown Squamish and the Terminals via a new Pemberton Avenue bridge, an option which has been discussed in Squamish municipal council.
