I would like to discuss two things with you today.
The Official Community Plan (OCP) is in its third phase, and is about the most important thing for the community to take part in right now.
Have your say in how Squamish grows!
In my opinion, we are not hearing enough from forestry or industry. If you work in forestry or industry please let us know how you see these sectors fitting into the future of Squamish.
Over the years, we have lost lot of industrial land.
The District of Squamish has a great video on Facebook that explains it all – please check it out.
The second thing is parking.
Over the last five years, Squamish has seen rapid growth with lots of density.
This is partly due to our relaxed parking requirements, which were brought in to attract growth in slower times.
In some cases, I have been the lone voice that addresses the big parking problems coming our way.
Well, last week at an advisory design panel meeting, which is comprised of architects, planners, engineers and other smart people from the community, the topic of parking came up.
Perhaps because I was the oldest at the table, I was surprised by some of the forward thinking approaches to parking discussed by the group.
The height of parking garages will be required to be high enough to convert to living spaces when car ownership is a thing of the past.
I was very surprised and interested at this view coming from these smart, young people.
I said I see big problems coming in parking and was told the buildings we are building now will be here for 100 years, and in 20 to 30 years we will no longer all have cars.
The driver-less car will have taken over. Go figure.
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