Sylvie Paillard
[email protected]
The District of Squamish (DOS) and the Squamish Oceanfront Development Corporation (SODC) announced Wednesday (April 26) the selection of Qualex-Landmark as the preferred proponent to partner in the development of the former Nexen waterfront land. But in the wake of the announcement, residents and businesspeople who say they're worried about the project are speaking out, and warning the elected officials that this will be the main issue during the June 24 byelection.
"This will make the CHIPS issue of a few years ago look like a Sunday school picnic," wrote local developer Doug Day in an email to SODC CEO Mike Chin copied to The Chief.
District council gave unanimous consent on April 11 to begin discussions towards a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Qualex-Landmark.
Day, a developer of single family homes, said he is outraged to read in SODC material that the free parcel of prime waterfront land, once individually rezoned and serviced, would not have sufficient value to recapture the servicing costs.
"Where is the DOS coming from, that it is going to squander this jewel of a piece ofwaterfront land for condo development in order to recapture the servicing costs, while in competition to the private sector condo developers who must compete with you and pay taxes?" asked Day in the email.
Chin acknowledged the land would not yield value after the pipes are in place. But with the development expertise and financial resources of Qualex, the SODC will fulfill its mandate to optimize the value of the lands on behalf of the community.
"You have to understand that this is very, very preliminary at this stage," he said. "As you do more due diligence and the master plan, you work all of this out."
Mayor Ian Sutherland said Day is only speaking out now, because council rejected his development partner, Holburn, as a proponent to develop the oceanfront.
Day said he's kept quiet the past six months out of respect for Holburn, and had no involvement or interest in the bid. Of major concern to anxious residents is the preliminary plan to build condos on the site. Condos have been the primary topic presented during a number of SODC-held public information sessions. Day said condo development is nothing but a headache, and the land should be turned into a Stanley Park.
Lawyer Doug Race of Race and Co. said condo development is a misuse of the lands. He said he wants the piece of oceanfront land to be the site of a community facility with recreational opportunities and industrial opportunities, which he called a "necessary evil" that would pay for servicing costs.
Ron Anderson of Squamish Terminals believes the conflict of residential units and the nearby heavy industrial port could lead to lawsuits and complaints. Anderson said the SODC has not adequately addressed his concerns.
"An example that the SODC was giving was the Vancouver airport, people live all around the airport, there's noise, there's light and people just learn to live with it," said Anderson. "Going onto the Vancouver airport website, they have about 450 complaints a year, they have hundreds of lawsuits out for noise and light pollution, and people suing them all the time."
Sutherland said he believes Anderson's concerns are "very legitimate" and "no matter what we do on that site we have to make sure it doesn't impact Ron's operation in a negative way." He added that it's presumptuous to assume the property would be turned into condos since the master plan for the land is still months away.
"We don't know if it'll be condos. We don't know what we're going to build," he said. "Concerns may not be founded yet, because we haven't even started the planning yet. So don't start throwing hand grenades until you find out what you're throwing hand grenades at."
Several residents are also complaining that there hasn't been enough public consultation, and are worried the land is simply being handed over to a corporation.
"Somehow the powers that be are willing to give developmental and capital control of our half-billion dollar asset to a real estate developer for a few million bucks of debt coverage for our unaccountable, out of control, arms' length District corporations," wrote Squamish Downtown Neighbourhood Association spokesperson Kevin Damaskie in a letter to The Chief. The association is papering the downtown with a survey questionnaire May 6 and 7 incorporating questions from the Chamber of Commerce, the SODC, the district and themselves. The possibility that the SODC would merge with the Adventure Centre's Sustainability Corporation makes Damaskie more nervous.
Sutherland said a merger of that nature has been discussed for a long time.
"It's certainly possible," he said. "It makes a lot of sense, but council will consider it at the right time. It's always been the long term plan that we would consider making one corporation that would deal with our community assets based on the Chilliwack model, which is pretty successful."
But no community asset is in jeopardy, said Sutherland. He said Qualex has agreed to spend millions of dollars to cover SODC debt and the restoration of the land, and if the vision for the land diverges, the partnership can dissolve without injury to either party. Qualex has also agreed to split the profit from the land 50/50.
"We didn't have the community asset two years ago and, to be blunt, it's here because of the hard work that council did to get it here so I'm going to be the last one to give away the community asset that I worked so hard to acquire," said Sutherland. "Secondly there are all kinds of things in there, like for example, if we agree that we're on different pages 18 months from now, we walk away from each other."
He added that in the worse case scenario, the district could lose the land to a financial institution, but no district money would be lost.
"[In] the very worst case, the joint venture would go bankrupt, and then the bank or the financer would take the land, so Qualex would lose the money and the district would lose the land," he said. "We can't lose any money, which is not a bad place to be." Sutherland said there will be plenty of opportunity for public input during the master planning process in the next six or seven months. Meanwhile, the next step is to draw up a memorandum of agreement (MOU). This process will involve district staff, the SODC and Qualex.
"We'll certainly take input and feedback from the community and we'll share the MOU with the community and get that feedback, but I think we're pretty confident what we need in the MOU," said Sutherland. "Something that we heard loud and clear from the community - and Qualex agrees 100 per cent -if we go down the path and eight months from now, 10 months from now, we have totally different ideas on what we should build on the waterfront, then we'll go our separate ways. So no one is giving away a community asset."
The proposed $500 million mixed use development project is seen as an "extraordinary" opportunity to drive the revitalization and economic diversification of the community, according to a DOS news release. The project is expected to produce $11 million per year in construction jobs, or more than 3,340 person years of employment, over the next 15 years and 270 permanent jobs to the community. It's also estimated that approximately $18 million a year in additional local spending will be generated.
