Over the past five years, the District of Squamish has welcomed development with the kind of enthusiasm previously associated with the arrival of royalty. But the relationship has not always been friendly and in some cases it has turned downright testy when developers strained at the leash of the Official Community Plan and other restrictive decrees.
Back in 2011, in what amounted to a nasty little kerfuffle, Doug Day threatened to sue the municipality over a retention wall he claimed was built partly on his property at the former Garibaldi Springs Golf Course. Coincidently, Day’s gambit came shortly after council nixed his request to have the property rezoned residential in exchange for the donation of an 80-acre community park on part of that land.
At the time, Day stated that he was very unhappy with the way the District of Squamish was treating him. “They are jerking us around,” he said.
And then we come to the protracted dispute related to a substantial chunk of land at the west end of Depot Road in Brackendale owned by Don McCargar.
In June of 2011, McCargar launched a lawsuit when his request to build a home on that site was denied after councillors expressed concerns about the wisdom of developing there.
“We are not happy with the District of Squamish and the way that they’ve been dealing with this,” he said and added the familiar refrain “they are jerking us around.”
Eventually, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Verhoeven ordered the District to give McCargar the green light and he said councillors’ opinions “do not reflect relevant considerations” for the issuance of a development permit.
Since 2009, McCargar has been seeking permission to build a subdivision on the land and recently has even offered to help pay for a dike upgrade. But the application was rejected because the area is designated as a green corridor and is located in a high-risk flood zone.
As a result, McCargar recently sued the municipality for a whopping $723 million.
Last September, in a response to the notice of claim, District officials said they would “deny all allegations” and asked the court to dismiss the proceedings.
At the moment, that dispute is in the case planning stage.
Meanwhile, another recent installment of the Squamish development turf wars is the Cheema family’s threat to shut down access to trails running through their 400-acre property adjacent to the Garibaldi Highlands.
That announcement comes on the heels of council’s continued refusal to allow development in the area until Squamish reaches a 22,500 resident threshold, a cap that was put in place in the 1990s.
So, when it comes to land development, either the District is selectively enforcing the rules, or quite possibly some developers are getting just a tad too pushy in their haste to scramble aboard the housing boom gravy train rumbling through town.
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