Recently Mayor Gardner said "I do not understand the concept," end of quote. He was talking about the proposed ski hill and real estate scheme at Cat Lake and Brohm Ridge.
I did not understand the concept either. That is why I asked for and was granted a brief talk with a planner at Muni Hall on June 29.
Although local newspapers already reported on some aspects of the Brohm Ridge proposal, I cannot avoid to reiterate the schemes' proponents' need to get Brohm Ridge incorporated into Squamish.
If it were not for the environmental assessment of the proposal, Squamish would have very little to do with the proposal, because it is [partially] located in the SLRD [Squamish Lillooet Regional District].
This is not going to change until the Squamish OCP [Official Community Plan] and the RGS [Regional Grwoth Strategy] have become law.
Why are the proponents of the Brohm Ridge scheme so concerned, eager and even in a panic about speedy incorporation? Can they not stand on their own feet with a supposedly sound business plan?
I was at least as puzzled about this as our dear mayor.
The proponents, in order to claim for their case, a bare minimum of the conceptual requirements of OCP, RGS and Smart Growth must be able to claim, albeit falsely, that Brohm Ridge is so close to Squamish that basically they are Squamish. Incorporation is the proof of this claim.
After incorporation the proponents have and are equal partners in:
A nearly new mayor and lawyer to boot, a development-driven council, a town hall, a swimming pool, a leisure centre, a firehall complete with firefighters, a police station, nearly new, complete with the finest, valiant officers, a sewage plant that relieves the proponents of their second largest worry, a library, a large hospital, road maintenance crews and equipment, snow clearing crews and their equipment and, best of all, a large pool of resident property taxpayers who can be tapped into in case things do not go as planned at Brohm.
Incorporation will enable the proponents to prove that they are a complete "real" community in the spirit of Smart Growth, the new OCP and RGS.
We must heed the proponent's warning that it would take many years to build a town for 22,500 persons. There would be huge cost and no income unless building lot sales are also huge.
During these lean years, the proponents "have" Squamish. They get amenities and infrastructure for free.
I asked: What would this do to property taxes in Squamish? Regarding tis question the planner said "Property taxes should go down." Was this wishful thinking? Was he pulling my leg?
Next I asked him which scenarios would be addressed by the socio-economic study, paid for by the proponents. His answer: "Only the case of incorporation into Squamish because that is what the proponents wanted."
Are you surprised that council did not do their own thinking but did what the proponents told them to do?
They did not realize that for the protection of Squamish taxpayers the study must include a socio-economic study for not incorporating Brohm Ridge.
What would happen in this case economically is obviously the best feasibility test for a stand-alone Brohm Ridge scheme.
How would they figure without leaning on Squamish?
According to the planner, the proponents could form a municipality only, becase resort-municipality status was denied them.
The planner promised to initiate the inclusion of the stand-alone (not incorporated) scenario in the socio-economic study.
In September we are going to know whether mayor and council did or did not do the proponents' bidding.
The lure for town hall is their perceived status enhancement for eventually representing 35,000 pedestrians instead of a mere 15,000.
Squamish may fall into the trap of seeing the Brohm Ridge proposal as a gold mine, whereas Squamish is seen by the proponents as the same.
DIETRICH JORDAN
Squamish
