Re: “Landowners offer to help build dike” (April 14). Mayor Patricia Heintzman’s reasons to spend $100 million on a dike infrastructure are not grounded on facts.
The only way to ensure that Brackendale and the entire upper floodplain (roughly 7,000 homes) are protected is to build the dike to a 200 FCL (flood construction level) provincial standard and use structural support to achieve buildings floor levels at a 200 FCL, not landfill pads.
My dike design proposed to council will increase the dike FCL from 200 to 500 FCL. With my landfill pads placed outside the dike, the width of the dike will increase threefold, making this not a dike design anymore, but rather a land mass that would never be breached.
Furthermore, with my design, there is very minimal economic impact on the taxpayers in Squamish.
Squamish would save at least $20 million in costs if my proposal is accepted. In addition, my plan can be activated and finished within six months of the issuing of a registered subdivision plan.
The District of Squamish plan will take two decades to construct a dike to a 200 FCL, which exposes all of the Squamish upper floodplain residences to potential flood damage or casualties.
I believe council should bring in a consultant to work out the details on my proposal.
The land at 1050 Depot Rd. is not at any higher flood risk, but is lower in flood water height than the properties 30 metres across Judd Slough on my property line. Yet all other lands can apply for rezoning except for mine actually have greater depths of floodwater than on my land.
The plans for 1050 Depot Rd. achieved first and second reading approval for rezoning and Official Community Plan (OCP) amendment in 2015 and have been placed on hold until the new flood way bylaw is created.
The OCP on my lands are greenway, but the OCP is not in alignment with the current zoning of residential.
Hundreds of OCP applications have been changed in Squamish by council due to the poor process of OCP designations on lands in part in the past.
I have a letter from our environmental specialist that recommends that the lands should be removed from the current OCP of greenways to residential.
Do some on council believe they have an entitlement to my lands for a park?
Don McCargar
Edmonton
