In the effervescent ’60s, crystal ball gazer Alvin Toffler scared a lot of folks right out of their collective knickers when he told them they were about to suffer from “shattering stress and disorientation” because too much change was happening too fast. More than half a century later the residents of the Shining Valley may want to heed the dire warning issued by the author of Future Shock.
With so much residential and commercial development underway we’re on the threshold of getting all shook up. Anybody who is looking for a primer on the consequences of unbridled urbanization should check out what’s happening in Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, Langley or Abbotsford. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 additional residents will soon be calling Squamish home. It is no secret that such a rapid population increase requires major infrastructure upgrades and a sizeable enlargement of public services.
This community is already experiencing the telltale consequences of development run amok as demand for services and facilities begins to outstrip the District of Squamish’s ability to respond in a timely manner. According to Coun. Susan Chapelle “We are working off an Official Community Plan (OCP) which is over 12 years old.” And she says many polices are “woefully inadequate.”
Mayor Patricia Heintzman puts it this way: “When you are busy during a growth phase your policy work lags behind and vice versa, when times are slow on the development front you ramp up the policy work... ultimately playing catch-up for the years you let the policy work lag.”
We know an overhaul of the OCP is underway. One of the objectives of that document will be to update recent initiatives, including Squamish’s branding program, downtown neighbourhood planning, estuary management, employment lands planning and a multimodal transportation strategy.
In the automotive industry there is a standard operating practice called the “just-in-time” production system. Instead of stockpiling components onsite, manufactures have parts delivered by suppliers precisely when they are needed. That procedure eliminates major storage and inventory tracking requirements. It works for Ford, GM, Toyota and virtually every other car company.
We have to ask ourselves whether the District of Squamish is applying the same concept to its urban planning strategy by making the assumption that somehow just about the time the next set of infrastructure upgrades are required they will be summarily bolted into place. Regrettably, that notion is wishful thinking, or worse, a head-in-the-sand frame of mind. The overriding question is how fast municipal officials will be able to transform a collection of ambitious OCP policy statements into concrete reality? When it comes to major community restructuring, the future is now.
