Is there any rhyme or reason to recent municipal rezoning decisions? The quick answer is yes, no and maybe.
Despite an extensive $7 million amenities package, the B.C. Rail application for a proposed four-story 212-unit development along the Mamquam Blind Channel was rejected because of greenspace and viewscape issues.
Recently the Townline Group of Companies asked the district to rezone a property at the end of Newport Ridge Drive from Residential 1 to a Comprehensive Development Zone to accommodate higher density three-story "affordable" homes in the $500,000 price range. The controversial project is now closer to implementation after council bought into the affordability angle and gave it third reading.
However, affordability is not always a successful lure if other factors come into play. Two years ago townhouse sales at the downtown Skye site tanked and the bank was about to pull the plug on the project. Thomas Ivanore, the proponent, petitioned to have the area rezoned for smaller, more buyer-friendly condos. Despite his pleas and prospects of building trades layoffs, the amendment failed to receive approval because council had a range of concerns, including building density on the estuary. Drywall contractor Orval Barnes, 10 of whose employees lost their jobs at the site, said council's decision made no sense.
Meanwhile, the promise of hundreds of long-term retail jobs and increased commercial tax revenues greased the skids for the Garibaldi Village mall launch. What an assortment of observers referred to as a prototypical patch of urban sprawl slipped under the Smart Growth and greenspace radar virtually undetected.
About the same time, in 2009, Wilf Dowad, who was considered the "mastermind" behind the Squamish industrial park, applied to have three acres between Garibaldi Way and Depot Road rezoned from rural residential to highway commercial. His application was rejected after muni staff invoked flooding concerns as well as the district's limit on Highway 99 commercial development.
Just across the road, developer Doug Day is about to make council a sweetheart offer. In exchange for the right to build "a few dozen houses" beyond what is allowed under current zoning regulations, he is ready to offer the community 100 of the 145 acres of the former Garibaldi Springs golf course as a district-owned park. Since the area is already a de facto community space, this lucrative offer could soon become a reality.
The barter-based rezoning protocol between developers and muni hall is also about to be tested at the former Kingswood Red Point site. That failed project has now morphed into a proposal for a mixed-use development, including 388 townhome units and a "national climbing centre." The big question here will be whether the repackaged development with its climbing facility stimulus will prevail over the high-density and traffic access issues that scuttled Red Point three years ago.
In any event, with the commercial and residential building sweepstakes heating up, developers have been in the habit of dangling a variety of carrots to sway district staff and council. The results have been mixed.
