Shovels may soon be in the ground for the final phase of Solterra’s Eaglewind housing development in downtown Squamish.
Council granted a development permit for the 50-unit, eight-building Summits View complex at its meeting on Tuesday night.
In 2007, a development permit had been issued for a 134-unit, six-storey apartment building on this lot. When the economy slowed, building was put on hold. The company switched plans from apartments to townhouses due to “changing market conditions,” according to a district staff report submitted to council.
“It really was the first real comprehensive neighbourhood development we had seen, maybe ever, that was realized,” said Mayor Patricia Heintzman of the community.
For Summits View, the proponent asked for a variance to allow for shorter driveways for some of the units.
Rather than six-metre driveways as required by the district, the proponent requested 12 units with 5.8-metre driveways – long enough for a vehicle – and 38 units with driveways at about 2.7 metres or less – not long enough to park a vehicle, according to district planner John Chapman. The strata would be responsible for enforcing that residents don’t park sticking out into the road on small driveways.
Three neighbours who live within the current Eaglewind development spoke to council before the vote on the development permit and variance and said parking is already an issue, with residents parking cars on short driveways or in visitor parking, according to district staff.
“Currently, without this component of the development… vehicles are parked down the length of Bailey Drive, on the boulevard, taking up all the boulevard space and taking up a lot of the space in the gravel parking for the green space, dog walking and tennis courts,” said Eaglewind resident Spencer Fitchen. “There is certainly not enough parking within the development itself.”
Heintzman was the only member of council to vote against granting the development permit on the grounds it did not meet the needs of creating a walkable neighbourhood.
“I generally think it is not a bad project, but I don’t think it meets our expectation in regards to pedestrian access throughout the development,” she said. “I don’t think the proposal does a good job at all of creating pedestrian access into and throughout the development.”
Solterra’s Craig Marcyniuk said the development company had learned from the first phases of the development and is offering higher garages and more storage in Summits View. “We’re listening to what people said and we are trying to mitigate some of those issues,” he said.
Several councillors who supported granting the development permit and variance said they did so reluctantly.
Councillor Ted Prior, for example, said the issues raised by the mayor, neighbours and other councillors point to the fact council needs to renew its development permits so they lead to the creation of more livable and walkable neighbourhoods.
“It would nice to review those things and clean them up,” he said.
