The Squamish Oceanfront Development Corporation (SODC) is looking at the restructuring of its senior management team as CEO Drew Stotesbury resigned this month to take another project outside the country.
Stotesbury was on of three former Intrawest real estate group executive to be hired for approximately $1 million in March 2009 along with Trevor Dunn and David Greenfield.
Stotesbury was unavailable for comment.
Greenfield said the CEO was not looking for another job, but Stotesbury told him this opportunity was "too good to turn down." He declined to disclose details of Stotesbury's new position.
Greenfield said Stotesbury is in the process of transitioning out of his role as CEO over the next couple of months while the SODC board "figures out what they want to do to replace him."
SODC board chair Bill McNeney was unavailable for comment.
At least one community member is jumping on the opportunity to criticize the SODC process and throw his hat in the ring.
Peter Legere has applied for the CEO position in the past, to no avail. The self-professed "consulting visionary" and "guerrilla planner" presented his case in an open letter to The Chief, which can be read in its entirety in this week's issue.
"It seems that the penchant for hiring high priced suits from away is not working out too well. Perhaps it is time to shift gears and get someone locally who has been around long enough to have a sense of history and local spirit," he writes.
"I am ready to hit the ground running. And I certainly don't need $1,700 per day."
As CEO, Stotesbury was the "main interface" with the SODC board and District of Squamish council, according to Greenfield, and he managed the staff and consultants working on the project.
In the short term, said Greenfield, Stotesbury's departure doesn't leave a big gap in the work being done.
"Trevor and myself have basically got 95 per cent of the activities under our belts that need to happen from now until the fall."
Stotesbury and his team's most pressing priority when hired just over a year ago was to put a business plan together. The plan was accomplished and presented to council last fall.
It determined the various land uses for the SODC property, and proposed a third of the land for community amenities such as parks, open space and trails, another third for employment uses including small retail village, office space and light industrial marine services, and the final third for some form of residential use.
"Since that time, we've been doing a number of things," said Greenfield. "We've been doing community outreach, presenting the business plan to all the various community groups."
Greenfield said the SODC team is also working with the district on finalizing a sub area plan encompassing the entire Oceanfront peninsula, including neighbouring properties owned by Westmana Development and BC Rail Properties.
The most pressing matter to resolve is sub area plan approval, said Greenfield, because that defines the land use for the site.
"Once that land use is now confirmed, I think it's much easier for the board and the district to contemplate formalizing the organizational structure, i.e. going out and hiring permanent staff, because the project has much more reality."
The team is also working closely with municipal staff on environmental approvals and some of the infrastructure planning on the project.
"We've also been putting together the marketing and communications program," said Greenfield. "Updating the website, rebranding the project, things of that nature."
The prospect that either Greenfield or Dunn may become CEO is up in the air, said Greenfield.
"It's not something we've contemplated. The board is probably going to sit down with Trevor and I and have a discussion about it."
The board is taking a hiatus over the summer, said Greenfield, and is scheduled to meet again in the fall.
