It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission - but that doesn't mean our elected officials shouldn't live by that motto.
The District of Squamish is finding itself nearly swept away by a massive building boom. The total value of building permits issued thus far in 2004 is up nearly 50 per cent over 2003, according to the District's recently released Council Chronicle - and just this week, council gave the green light to another 153 housing units in three projects, including the first major apartment complex downtown since 1998.
At the same time, council is trying to provide some direction - new, naturally - to the way the community handles this rapid expansion, hiring new planners and staff and launching studies by the truckload.
All the while, the main instrument of planning for the community - the Official Community Plan - seems to be growing more and more obsolete. It was last updated in 1998, at a time when Interfor and BC Rail were the big movers of the economy, when the housing market was as flat as a pancake and the title "Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada" was still unknown.
The real shame is that the OCP could have been ready for this. Late in 2002, when Merrill & Ring proposed a change to the OCP to add nearly 2,000 houses to the community, residents went ballistic over the unplanned change.
In the end, that council, on its last legs, backed off and scheduled an OCP review for 2003 and put money aside in the budget.
That review didn't start until April of this year, and the review committee has a long ways to go before it'll be ready to put anything before the public.
In the meantime, a huge number of the decisions that will shape the future of this community for years to come - big box development in the Business Park, downtown and waterfront development, the Sea to Sky University and future residential and commercial growth in the Garibaldi Highlands and Estates - will have been made. The OCP hearings will be asking approval for a plan that's already in motion - in essence, asking forgiveness (or endorsement after the fact) rather than permission.
Obviously council can't and shouldn't slam the door on development. But at a time when the District seems to be throwing a large amount of time and resources into planning, from Smart Growth forums to design charettes to transportation and accommodation studies, surely there's a way to fast-track the OCP and let people get as much of a say as they can about the future of their community before that future takes shape.
That is, after all, what open and transparent government is all about.
