It has been a long time coming, but the wait is over.
Started more than a year ago, the draft Squamish 2040 Official Community Plan is ready for final feedback from the public.
This document is important because it is the umbrella under which almost all other documents, policies and decisions of Squamish council and District of Squamish staff fall. It sets the vision for the community for the next 25 years to achieve four main goals: resilient, healthy, connected and livable.
“It really has been community driven,” said Mayor Patricia Heintzman. “We really wanted it to be a grassroots document and council hasn’t micromanaged this at all. It really has come from the public engagement.”
A community committee helped make the plan more accessible and easy to understand, she added.
In terms of her vision of where Squamish residents will live and work in 2040, Heintzman said there will be diversity in housing, and housing density along transit routes, allowing for a more robust transportation system.
“So you can actually take the bus efficiently from Brackendale to the Highlands to Valleycliffe and everywhere in between.”
Electric vehicles and the development of a “convenient and accessible” electric vehicle-charging network are also encouraged through the plan.
“The downtown, the waterfront and the oceanfront lands are the real core to the community in terms of density and job creation,” Heintzman added.
The draft OCP is chock-a-block full of plans for Squamish.
Items of note include: furthering truth and reconciliation with the Squamish Nation; developing in existing areas before expanding into new areas and the use of an Urban Containment Boundary (UCB) to manage growth and limit sprawl.
The District wants public feedback specifically on the population threshold for certain undeveloped areas, such as the Cheema lands between Upper Garibaldi Highlands and Alice Lake.
Recently, a campaign sprang up on social media, “Keep Garibaldi Green,” that accuses the draft OCP of guaranteeing the sensitive habitat of the former Garibaldi Springs Golf Course will be used for housing.
Development company Polygon has floated the idea of a housing development on the former golf course since it bought the property last year, but no application has officially come before council for any approvals. At a public information meeting held by the company in June of last year, Polygon presented a multiphase development proposal. Phase one would include 200 townhouses in the northern portion of the property.
“If you let council change the OCP for development of green space, there is no going back,” reads the text of the Keep Garibaldi Green online campaign. “Once developers get their foot in the door, they will use every tool to maximize units, and increase profits.”
The OCP does contemplate, in the next 20 years, conceivably building out certain lands such as the Cheema, Cheekye, Crumpit Woods and Garibaldi Springs lands, Heintzman said.
But she stressed the Official Community Plan is still in draft form.
“We fully expect the community to come out and let us know their opinion about where those policies are, currently in the draft. With the feedback from the community, recommendations may come to council… that we consider taking this out, or putting this in. That is totally part of the public process.”
To share feedback go to squamish.ca/OCP and fill out an online survey by June 11. A public open house is planned for May 24 at Brennan Park Recreation Centre from 6 to 9 p.m.
District staff will also be hosting “pop-up” stations at community events until mid-June to talk to people about the draft OCP.
The final draft is expected to be brought before council for final adoption by October, according to Heintzman.
