Mayor Armand Hurford addressed community business members about the future of Squamish at the annual Mayor’s Luncheon event on Wednesday, June 14, atop the Sea to Sky Gondola.
Hurford introduced the District of Squamish’s 2023-2026 strategic plan to approximately 75 guests in attendance at the Squamish Chamber of Commerce function, including the plan’s four main pillars: connected and livable community, resilient people and relationships, reliable service delivery, and prepared for the future.
After introducing and explaining the very first pillar, Hurford admitted that council had set a high bar for itself and the community.
“Now, that sounds like a very lofty goal unto itself and we have more goals than that,” he said. “And we're still working on the tactics to achieve that.”
Affordable housing was one of the first topics Hurford touched on. He noted that numerous conversations he’s had with businesses in town have been around the difficulty in finding and retaining staff due to housing.
“We know that we're facing a housing crisis, and our current housing supply does not meet community needs,” he said.
That said, Hurford spoke highly about establishing the Squamish Community Housing Society.
“They will be advocating for affordable housing and will act as an advisory body to the municipality and will even take on their own projects over time,” he explained. “So I'm very proud of this piece of work and its impact has already been felt. But it's really just starting.”
He also pointed out the 76-unit Spirit Creek affordable apartment complex, which opened this year, as an example. He reiterated that it was the culmination of partnerships and many years of work.
“It is possible we can meet our affordable housing targets but not without partnerships from BC housing and community non-profit partners, which is why we continue to advocate with the province for funding partnerships.”
When speaking about the reliable service delivery pillar, Hurford discussed several infrastructure projects that were being upgraded, including Brennan Park Recreation Centre. But he also commented that the municipality was focusing on better end-of-life planning and replacement for current infrastructure.
“This makes so much sense and is such a simple sentence, but it's not what has happened,” he said. “That is why we're having the challenge we're having with our facilities currently.”
The group in attendance had a number of questions for Hurford, one of which was related to how the District plans to keep up infrastructure with ongoing development.
Hurford responded that the District has recently reviewed the development cost charges bylaw and also shortened the review cycle for it, which in essence, requires developers to pay for growth.
Similarly, he also said that the community amenity contribution (CAC) policy could also require a developer to pay for infrastructure costs, but in recent years has focused more heavily on affordable housing and childcare.
“I would love to see us be able to ship CAC policy more to facilities, rec facilities, these sorts of things,” he said. “But people need a place to live.”
Another question raised was about how the District processes development applications.
Hurford responded that there were a number of factors as to why applications had lengthy turnaround times, some of which was from the total number of applications the District receives plus the steps involved with the processing, like an environment assessment.
However, Hurford also discussed that the District is in the process of speeding up approvals by delegating some development variance permits to staff and forgoing public hearings about certain rezoning applications, which passed the first reading at council on June 6.
“If the municipality’s policies are strong enough, then you can delegate a higher level of decisions to staff to streamline that, so council gets the pieces that really warrant council consideration,” he said.
Other individual questions were asked and answered including costs of patio permits, neighbourhood planning and campfire enforcement. Councillors John French, Lauren Greenlaw, Chris Pettingill and Jenna Stoner were also in attendance as well as other representatives from the District.
