The makeup of the neighbourhood around Wilson Crescent in Dentville, currently a mix of housing types, could look quite different in the future.
The District of Squamish is working on a ‘micro plan’ for the area around Wilson Crescent as part the larger Dentville community plan.
Planning staff asked council for direction because the District is seeing significant interest from developers about this neighbourhood. Council looked at scenarios for what development and growth there could look like, but didn’t appear to favour any of the three options presented.
The first option would keep the existing zoning. Although much of the neighbourhood is currently single family homes, many of those lots were zoned for multiple family use nearly 40 years ago. If no changes are made, many of the existing houses could be replaced with townhomes without changing the zoning, and without requiring much in the way of amenities or cash contributions from developers.
Option two would allow for more infill options — such as laneway houses, clustered cottages, duplexes, and triplexes — as a way of retaining the single family home feel of the neighbourhood, but allowing more choices of development and greater density.
This option was inspired by development in Vancouver, where the city is allowing for minor increases in density in single-family neighbourhoods, but also allowing strata title of the new units.
But Squamish staff recommended a third option: develop a new custom zone for the neighbourhood.
That option would change the zoning to be a “density bonus zone,” while allowing the same types of infill in option two, as well as apartments and townhouses throughout the neighbourhood. It could also include a minimum lot size for apartment buildings.
“By having a density bonus structure in your bylaw, it would get your benefits directly in the neighbourhood, rather than just contributing to CAC (community amenity contribution) dollars,” said planner Susan Stratis.
This change could offer increased density to developers who proposed different housing options or amenities, including rental housing, small parks at the street edges, streetscape improvements, trail construction or habitat restoration at Wilson Slough, or a rear walkway for pedestrians.
And while staff preferred to increase density in the area, the narrow one-way roads, problem intersections at Buckley Avenue, lack of sidewalks and limited parking could create even more problems with increased traffic.
Coun. Doug Race said increasing the density could be a good thing, but acknowledged that the existing roads would create some problems. “This is a great place for density because it’s close to services, it’s close to downtown, it’s got buses. It sort of checks off all the boxes, and then you look at the road, and you think, ‘Holy smokes. How would that ever work?” he said.
Race suggested it could work if there were no on-street parking, something Coun. Ted Prior agreed with, if there was a way to build a parking lot. Coun. Susan Chapelle also discussed the narrow streets, the lack of sidewalks and said adding more density would be very complicated.
Coun. Jason Blackman-Wulff said he was concerned the District was trying to “make up for a deficiency that we’ve created by loading more density into this area.”
“It makes me uncomfortable, and I understand developers want to squeeze in more units, that’s their prerogative, but I think the existing zoning allows for densification already,” he said.
Coun. Karen Elliott said she would like to encourage some redevelopment in the area because there is a better use for that land than just single-family homes.
Mayor Patricia Heintzman asked staff to look into if the zoning could create parameters around consolidating lots so the area does not become a neighbourhood of just one type of housing.
