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Finch Drive development faces opposition

Hummingbird Lane housing pocket project not welcomed by some rural neighbours

proposed Squamish housing development is facing stiff opposition from some of its neighbours. 

The rezoning of 1038 Finch Drive passed first reading at the regular council meeting Jan. 20, but the Hummingbird Lane Joint Venture planned for the property will never fly, if some of the surrounding residents have anything to say about it. 

The proposal is to build a sustainable “pocket neighbourhood” of eight houses on 6,600 and 7,400-square-foot lots that will face onto a green space designed to also be a community garden.

The property is currently zoned rural residential, but if the proponents are successful, that will be changed to residential modular home to allow for the subdivision. 

“I totally agree with the concept of the pocket neighbourhood, but it is absolutely out of character,” said Peter Cox, who lives next door to property of the proposed development.

“It is pre-fab homes and there are eight of them on lots an eighth the size of all the lots in the surrounding area.”

 About 100 people signed a petition against allowing the subdivision on the property.

“If the division into multiple lots proceeds it would result in setting a precedent that would significantly alter the character of the neighbourhood,” reads the petition that was submitted to council.  

A letter from the potential development’s neighbours Suzanne and Doug Gordon states that 90 per cent of the residents living on and around Finch Drive object to the development.  

The Gordons argued that the project goes against Squamish’s Official Community Plan (OCP).

“Adding a unique neighbourhood of eight new family homes on a property that, like all of its long established neighbours… houses only one family, certainly does not reflect the character of the existing neighbourhood,” the Gordons said in their letter.

But some who live in the area support the project. Delena Angrignon wrote, in a letter to council, that she and her husband fully support the Hummingbird Lane project. 

“The project opens up the opportunity to showcase a different way to add density without sacrificing so much green space and creates an environmental and sustainable model,” Angrignon said in her letter.

When the bylaw was put to first reading at council, district staff said that the project does meet many OCP policies. It helps to provide a range of mixed housing types and infill growth through existing neighbourhoods, for example, according to district staff.

Deborah McQueen, a proponent of the project, also told council that care had been taken to not let the development impact riparian areas (ecosystems that border bodies of water) on the property, which shrunk the amount of space available for the housing lots.

‘We are losing a fifth of the lot that we bought on riparian, which is substantial,” she said. 

McQueen said the idea of the pocket neighbourhood is to have a small-scale, sustainable, multigenerational housing project.

“This is a place for some families to live together,” she said. “This is all about community. It isn’t an exclusive community that is going to have gates. We hope that we would be part of that greater community.”

The next step is second reading at a yet-to-be-determined upcoming council meeting, followed by a public hearing prior to second reading. 

McQueen was Mayor Patricia Heintzman’s campaign manager for the Nov. 15 election. The mayor hasn’t made a declaration of conflict, but she will likely speak to it when the development comes back to council, according to the district.

 

Please note this story has been corrected since its original posting to reflect that the homes won't necessarily be prefabricated.

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