The waves of the Oceanfront Land deal are cresting fast and furious these days.
At Tuesday night’s council meeting, council passed third reading and adopted the bylaw amendments to the Squamish Official Community Plan related to the Squamish Oceanfront Peninsula Sub Area Plan.
Council also passed third reading of a zoning bylaw amendment related to the Oceanfront lands.
The passing of these bylaws is a condition of sale in the district’s deal with Newport Beach Developments, which is purchasing the property.
Several Squamish leaders of industry in public hearings, the last of which occurred earlier Tuesday evening, have opposed the bylaw amendments.
The main concern expressed by the leaders was that the proximity of future housing to established industry on the waterfront will lead to conflicts that could potentially squeeze out industry.
“We are growing and we are going to continue to grow,” said Joe Webber, vice-president of operations at Squamish Terminals. “We aren’t going anywhere. We are heavy industry, we make noise, we work around the clock, we have bright lights and, on occasion, at times there is vibration and we create dust.” Webber added the company moves more than $1 billion worth of goods through the terminal each year and has an annual payroll of about $10 million. Webber said the Terminals also pay the most taxes to the district.
“Squamish Terminals does not intend to delay council in moving forward, but we would say that the drafting of the covenants should be afforded the adequate time required to accommodate the concerns of all stakeholders.”
Covenants are written official promises that bind future owners and users of the land to the conditions set out in them. In this case, in its most simple form, industry leaders want the covenants to say that current and future owners and users of the waterfront lands won’t take action against the industrial businesses because they were aware of what they were getting into when they bought the land.
Webber said covenants that were in the works were ultimately disappointing.
“Our feeling is if the developer and/or current council do not believe that things like noise, light, vibration and dust will be a problem into the future for the owners and occupiers of the [Squamish Oceanfront Development Corporation] lands, then it should be no problem incorporating our points into the covenants.”
Linda Glenday, deputy chief administrative officer at the district, said that the issues around industry that people were speaking to would be addressed in the phased development agreement that has yet to be made public.
“We are… in conversation with the developer around covenants that would be placed on title for some of the flex zones to ensure that future owners and business owners will be aware of their proximity to industry and so it is through the phased development agreement that that issue will be addressed,” Glenday said.
The sub area plan amendment bylaw really just fixes some inconsistencies that were in the original sub area plan document Glenday said.
“The purpose of the sub area plan [amendment] is to improve on the language, which was rather vague,” she said.
Developer Doug Day, who has put in his own $20 million offer to the district last week for the lands to try and stop the current deal, said that after several of the mills in Squamish closed people started to dismiss industry in the district, but he said industry is coming back and space is needed for it.
“We just sort of wrote off industry, and said, ‘OK, industry is gone, we’ll now just build houses here and everyone will be happy’… and we got way, way off track,” said Day.
“I realize it is just the sub area plan amendment tonight, but the issue is much, much bigger than that… this whole plan was ill conceived… that is not an area that is suitable for houses. The whole plan should be scrapped.”
Mayor Patricia Heintzman stressed that council supports industry on the waterfront.
“Certainly council and staff have always wanted to ensure the success and the viability of industry on our waterfront so that will certainly be reflected in the phased development agreement,” she said.
The phased development agreement is to come before council soon, according to district staff.
The sale of the lands was to be closed by June 23, but that date has been pushed forward to July 15, or 15 days after registration of subdivision of the lands, whichever is later, according to district staff.
