EDITOR,
Someone has to say it.When are we going to stop deluding ourselves about the SODC proposal for the waterfront lands? Like so many in our community, I long to see improved water access and some sort of park out at Nexen Beach.But what was once a modest dream has blossomed into an unstoppable monster, consuming vast amounts of our community finances to the point where default on the growing debt appears inevitable and the forced sale of the land at the bottom of the market to some well-connected developer is the expected outcome.Every component of this project has big questions hanging over it.We owe approximately $8 million on land we purchased for $1. The land was once valued at approximately $25 million but is now currently appraised at around $15 million.
The plan proposes building a public park using community finances for $5 million that will be the hook to attract a high-end hotel. The proposed hotel will be built next to the park which is at the end of 100 acres of abandoned industrial land.The hotel will in turn be the anchor tenant for additional investments. The business model for this is frankly laughable.And then there is the concept of developing a thriving "village centre" adjacent to the hotel. How this is supposed to assist in the rejuvenation of our existing downtown, over one kilometer away, is beyond me.
A major focus of this proposal is the creation of a light industrial component to emulate the ever-popular Granville Island model.This hinges on the area designated as the Marine Centre. Take a look at the plans. The inappropriately named "Marine" Centre is limited to approximately 30 feet of ocean frontage and is on the opposite side of the peninsula and fully separated from the proposed marina. This just doesn't make sense. Apparently that is what you get when zoning decisions are based on the level of contamination of underlying soils. The proposed 300-slip marina is located in an area exposed to the notorious and consistent on-shore winds for which Squamish is famous. Docking a sailboat on a typical sunny day in the afternoon in Squamish is difficult enough at the relatively sheltered existing docks.Doing so in the proposed location will take an expert. When our inflow winds blow, there is a 15-knot differential between the two locations. The location for the proposed windsport beach will be spitting kite boarders out right into the middle of the only navigable channel for all boat traffic in and out of the harbour. Who thought that one up?
The hoped-for institutional tenant has not materialized and that leaves residential development as the only viable option (other than a return to industry).Given the stagnant real estate market and many pundits predicting years of potential stagnation, this is hardly something to take to the bank.
Of course, there are many other issues complicating the project. The unresolved issues of site remediation, the ongoing need and controversy surrounding the dredging of the Blind Channel, the obvious need to first develop the approx. 30 acres of land that separate the SODC parcel from downtown (the Westmana lands).There are also all the other complex planning and development issues facing the community that need our full attention.Red Point and the Upper Blind Channel, Loggers Lane and the BCR property and of course, the fully zoned, ready-to-go Waterfront Landing (the old Interfor Mill site). These are all major mixed residential/commercial, private-sector developments that, from my perspective, should occur before the SODC development.Last but not least, there is still that overriding issue of the inhospitable wind that blows so fiercely every afternoon of the summer.
We've got to stop bleeding money on this project.Let's fix up Nexen Beach in good old Squamish fashion - local expertise, volunteers, in-kind contributions and at a scale to match our limited resources. Let's put the SODC project on hold, stop catering to special interests and get back to what makes sense.
Dan Tetzlaff
Squamish
