If Will Croxall were with us today, he’d have been quoted in The Squamish Chief last week for sure.
The long-time community advocate passed away at the age of 90 in 2012 at Hilltop House. For many years, he was a regular visitor to The Squamish Chief office, offering pronouncements on the doings of local, provincial and federal politicians of all stripes.
He was full of history and connections, and had time to share them – often more time than busy reporters and editors had to listen, sadly.
But his favourite subject – the one he was most passionate about – was the Cheekye Fan.
For years, Croxall was a tireless advocate for the development of a mobile-home community in the Fan – an answer, in his mind, to Squamish’s affordable housing issues, especially for seniors.
The challenge he faced was the same one faced today: building a barrier that would prevent debris flow from flooding the alluvial fan – a multi-million-dollar challenge that made developing the land unaffordable.
Last month’s announcement that the Squamish Nation and Cheekeye River Developments Ltd. have applied for a rezoning application and amendment to the District of Squamish’s Official Community Plan to develop the land along Ross and Government Roads changes everything.
The Squamish Nation’s involvement, and its ability to build the required barrier in advance and recover the costs from developing the land, make possible what for so many years had been hopeless. The fact that the proceeds will go to develop reserve housing for Squamish Nation members is also encouraging.
The homes that will rise along Ross Road in the years to come will be beautiful – more beautiful, we have no doubt, than the simple trailers Croxall wanted to see there. And they will, in the end, go towards helping house people who need it – albeit indirectly through reserve housing paid for by the sale of the new lots.
All in all, what would Will have thought of last week’s announcement? On the one hand, he’d probably be happy to finally see something happening.
But we strongly suspect he’d still be in our office, hopping mad about an opportunity missed.
