An outdoor Squamish rope course activity centre is a step closer to becoming a reality.
“It is basically family fun,” said Mario Gomes, the local developer behind the project, when describing the approximately $1-million rope tower where anyone four years old and up can participate.
On Dec. 20, council directed District of Squamish staff to negotiate a lease agreement to bring the recreation amenity to a corner of the Squamish Adventure Centre parking lot.
KristallTurm, the company behind the rope course, has 30 such centres operating worldwide, according to Gomes. The towers are made in Squamish, employing 17 people locally, he added.
The rope course would be installed in two phases: The first phase is the inner tower with a footprint of about 2,500 square feet. Around 40 people can play on the structure at a time.
“If it is successful and the community and everyone else likes it and would like to expand, we could expand to the larger park,” he said.
The larger outer tower would be about 10,000 square feet.
The first tower would have six metal posts in a hexagon shape with one post in the middle encompassing 48 games or activities throughout the course, according to Gomes. The structures can be customized to suit Squamish with, perhaps, climbing walls incorporated.
But not everyone is thrilled about the prospect of a rope course at the Squamish Adventure Centre.
Toby Foord-Kelcey of the Squamish Access Society said society members support the business proposed, but not the location.
“Our concern is about parking capacity,” he said.
“As a society, one of our biggest concerns over the last year is… trying to make sense of the related issues of wild camping, van camping and illegal parking.” *
The Squamish Adventure Centre is the wrong place for this attraction because it takes up valuable parking for recreationalists who already flock to the area, Foord-Kelcey continued.
“Please leave the full capacity of the parking lot,” he told the committee.
Coun. Susan Chapelle voiced disdain for putting the business at the Adventure Centre and voted against going to the negotiating stage with the proposal.
“This is a public piece of land… I think using public land for this is inappropriate. I think that we do need that [parking] capacity,” she said.
“Tourists are coming up because we are a wild place to be. Manufactured things – when we have a climbing park right behind with the Smoke Bluffs that does the same thing with the climbing park that you can do with a manufactured climbing park – I think this would be great, in another location.”
Council passed third reading of a zoning amendment that cleared the way for the project in March.
It was hoped that the centre would be operational last summer, but the approvals process has been slower than expected, Gomes said.
If all goes according to plan, the ropes course would open to the public in April.
“We are ready,” Gomes said.
Once they are negotiated, the terms of the lease will be brought back to council for their approval.
DOS land facts
*The District of Squamish owns 18 buildings with 208,568 square feet on 115 acres and nine vacant sites equaling 50 acres.
*The district leases five sites to third parties totaling around 290 acres and
leases seven sites from third parties totaling around 85 acres.
*Overall the district has 34 leases with third parties on District of Squamish lands.
~From the District of Squamish real estate webpage.
*Please note the quote from Foord-Kelcey was modified since this story was first posted. The quote originally included "illegal camping," but he told The Squamish Chief he actually said "...illegal parking."
