Editor’s note:
According to the District, there are currently no dates set for council to consider this project.
There has been sufficient public interest to confirm that a public information meeting will be required, which means the applicant will need to host a public info meeting, which District staff will attend.
With the razing of both the original Squamish United Church and recently the original Squamish Catholic Church, our municipality retains little tangible evidence of its early roots. However, the Brackendale village store and post office are well-used and important institutional reminders of the history of our community that have endured for more than a century.
I was thus disturbed to learn of a proposal recently submitted to the District that would see the store and post office building engulfed by two condominium blocks, monstrous in both size and appearance.
The preliminary drawings show structures that are totally inappropriate to the site, both in scale and in appearance.
Moreover, the developer requests a waiver of already limited parking requirements, although the available parking is often already at capacity from the combined demands of store, post office and cafe. So, the cars of the new residents will of necessity obstruct the heavily used bicycle lanes on Government Road, and will block the access of young families to the park on Cottonwood Road.
Finally, the area is a significant salmon habitat, but the design as submitted fails to meet currently accepted riparian setbacks.
Certainly, we have a continuing need for the construction of affordable rental housing in Squamish, but we do not need to do this at the expense of the beauty and history of our heritage. There are many suitable sites available for new housing initiatives both downtown and at Newport Beach (former Nexen lands) and some of these have sat empty for 20 or even 30 years.
Thus, I hope that Brackendale residents, and indeed all who live in Squamish, will join in strongly urging council to reject the present misguided proposal.
Roy Shephard
Squamish
