The Sea to Sky Gondola proposal received a flood of support at a Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) public hearing last Thursday (April 19).
Fifty-four people signed up to voice their opinions at Britannia Beach Community Hall on the proposed rezoning and Area D Official Community Plan (OCP) amendment needed to allow the sightseeing gondola's top terminal.
Project proponent David Greenfield said the tram running 2,700 feet up a ridge below Mount Habrich will tap into the 9 million visitors who drive up Highway 99 annually - 71 per cent of whom are travelling for recreational purposes. Currently, people who stop at the Stawamus Chief Provincial Park stay an average of 20 minutes, the principal of Sea to Sky Gondola Co. said, a figure he wants to increase.
"We see this employing 30 to 80 people directly," Greenfield said, noting the Capilano Suspension Bridge has 200 staff.
The project would provide "huge" cross-marketing opportunities for facilities such as the Britannia Mine Museum and the West Coast Railway Hertitage Association, he added.
"We truly want to get this right," Greenfield said.
Squamish Nation Coun. Dale Harry was the first to the microphone. The nation is in support of the project, he said.
"We would object to one going up the Chief, we would object to one going up Shannon Falls, but this one goes up the middle," Harry said.
The gondola won't be the overarching answer to Squamish's economic woes, Squamish resident Auli Parviainen said, but could be a component of addressing the problem.
Environmental consultants estimate 30 trees might need to be taken down to allow for the gondola, which is less lumber that has been hauled out of the woods to maintain trails and climbing areas, co-founder of the Squamish Trails Society John Harvey said.
"I've worked in the Smoke Bluffs for 35 years and I've taken out 200 trees," he said.
North Vancouver resident Anders Ourom - who finished his first climb up the Chief in 1972 at the age of 16 - said he isn't against the idea of a gondola but would like to see it placed elsewhere.
As the project stands, the gondola route requires the reclassification of a 20-metre-wide, one-kilometre-long swath of provincial park land from Class A Park to Protected Area.
"We believe land should not be removed from the park," he said. "The process to get [land designated as park] is difficult enough."
Last February, when the two-hectare parcel slated as the location the gondola base area was sold by The Land Conservancy (TLC) of British Columbia to a financial institution, a covenant was placed on the property. It stipulated the land not be used for a gondola travelling up the face of the Chief or one that terminates in the provincial park.
The current proposal may follow its guidelines, but goes against the intent of the covenant, Ourom said.
Although this issue, along with the park reclassification, is outside of the SLRD's jurisdiction, the regional governing body's decision may affect B.C. Parks officials' direction, he warned.
"You are dealing with a flawed process that has been given to you by the provincial government," Ourom said.
Fellow climber Glen Woodsworth agreed. He was concerned about the impact the extra foot traffic will have on the backcountry. Stawamus park is currently overflowing with visitors, he warned.
"[We are] overusing and stressing an already stressed-out area," Woodsworth said.
Some of the province's most popular parks include manmade structures, Garibaldi Highlands resident Donna Wall said. Alice Lake Provincial Park has a fake beach, bike trails, washrooms and a parking lot, but the features don't make it less of a park, she said.
"This is not virgin, pristine forest," she said of the Crown land on which the gondola is slated to terminate.
In the 1960s and '70s, Squamish resident Kerry Brown said he remembers tree planting after a logging operation occurred in the area.
"It was a mess. I don't want to see that again," he said, noting the gondola will prevent logging.
Of the 54 people who spoke at the 3 -hour hearing, 14 were against the project. The SLRD will examine the information received at the public hearing and compile a report. A date for third reading has not yet been scheduled.
Last week, former B.C. environment minister John Cashore came out against the proposal. A lot of thought went into the creation of Class A park, he said.
In the 1990s, when Cashore was minister, he said B.C. was in the midst of a push to dedicate 12 per cent of each jurisdiction as park or protected land, a goal they accomplished.
Given the abundance of land in the province, Cashore said the gondola proponents should look for an alternative location for the gondola.
