Britannia Bay Properties Inc. has taken the next big step in its efforts to make significant development changes in Britannia Beach.
The company that owns the residential area in Britannia has applied to the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) to rezone the property.
Along with that, the landowner applied to the Ministry of Transportation (MOT) for a subdivision permit. The company wants to subdivide the large single parcel it owns into smaller lots. The process will result in the existing lots becoming officially recognized as separate properties instead of the current situation where only one large parcel is acknowledged.
The SLRD representative for the area, John Turner, told The Chief that the landowner wants to sell the individual properties to the current residents.
"The lots themselves would be fee-simple," Turner said. "After that gets sorted out there's going to be additional lots that will be built on around the existing community."
Jerry Bordian of BBPI said his company wants to build 100 new lots at Britannia. He said that some of the new lots will be large and his company plans to retain some of the trees in the areas slated for new building lots.
While the regional and provincial governments review the rezoning and subdivision applications BBPI will continue upgrading the town's infrastructure.
"There will be a brand new water system, a brand new sewer system and treatment centre, new roads and there we will replace the electrical system," Bordian said. "There will also be a replacement of the telephone services."
Once the infrastructure upgrades are complete, the vital workings of the community will be turned over to the appropriate agency. The water systems will go to the regional district, Telus will take over the telephone workings and BC Hydro will be responsible for the power grid, Bordian said.
The rezoning application went before the SLRD directors late last month. Planning consultant Michael Rosen outlined the application at the meeting in Pemberton.
Britannia residents Jane Iverson and Pam Tattersfield attended the meeting as well to speak in favour of the rezoning.
Iverson is the coordinator of the residents' advisory committee and the liaison between the landowner and the residents. There are regular meetings between her and BBPI and after the meetings Ive-rson up-dates the residents on the latest news.
"They have been excellent to work with," Iverson told The Chief. "Lots of excellent communication. They have bent over backwards to meet us and have done a substantial upgrade of the volunteer fire department."
Iverson added that the new owner of the Britannia land is also doing much-needed maintenance work on many of the homes and infrastructure upgrades are being planned.
"The big key concern is affordability and the retention of the historic community and the structures that exist," Iverson said. "Britannia Bay is respectful of that and committed to ensuring that the houses are affordable and the lots for the trailers are affordable."
While they were before the SLRD, Tattersfield and Iverson asked the directors to encourage the MOT to consider installing a traffic light at Hwy. 99 and Main Street in Britannia.
"There's a big safety issue there and it has been there for 25 years," Iverson said.
She pointed out that returning to Britannia from Squamish on a busy Sunday night can be a frustrating experience. If northbound traffic is heavy through Britannia, the residents force southbound traffic to a halt until there is a break in the northbound traffic.
Many impatient Vancouver-bound drivers go around the resident vehicles. Iverson pointed out that going around means vehicles have to travel on the highway shoulder.
"Some people go by there at 80 km-h," Iverson said.
Britannia residents want a "smart light" installed slightly north of the existing main entrance to Britannia which is currently located near the large off-road dump truck that is displayed by the highway.
Turner noted that the work in Britannia is not expected to be impacted by a regional growth strategy that the SLRD wanted to have in place by the summer of 2005
