Following a generally positive public hearing, Squamish appears poised to have its first pod hotel.
On Dec. 15, elected officials voted unanimously in favour of granting third reading for a rezoning that would allow a 48-unit pod hotel to be constructed at 37773 Cleveland Avenue.
“It’s a bold development, and I believe that this fits well in our downtown,” said Coun. John French.
This means the proposed development has cleared the most difficult set of obstacles in the municipal zoning process. Adoption of the rezoning bylaw is a near certainty at this point.
The development, which is being spearheaded by Rodney Wilson, best known in town as the owner of Airhouse, seeks to bring the worldwide trend to Squamish.
Pod or micro hotels originated in Japan and provided tiny rooms or pods for patrons who were interested in a no-frills place to sleep on a budget.
During the public hearing that preceded council’s vote, just about everyone who spoke about the project — mainly consisting of people in the tourism and business community — said that they were supportive of the project.
Those in support said that it would increase the town’s ability to offer overnight accommodations to tourists.
It would allow people to spend more money in town and drive up the economy, they said.
Having people stay overnight or longer would also alleviate pressure on the town’s infrastructure, they said.
“The desire, I think, of tourism in Squamish is to not have as many day visitors. Day visitors are awesome, but they bring traffic and congestion and a much lower spend than people who stay overnight,” said Kirby Brown.
Brown is the chair of Tourism Squamish and the general manager of the Sea to Sky Gondola, but he was speaking as a private resident.
“Personally, my concern is that if we continue to see this deficit in beds, in the longer term, it puts pressure on the streets, the roads, and we’ll begin to see a bit of a community push back,” he continued.
Others, however, raised questions about one issue — parking.
The hotel would accommodate up to 48 people, and some at the public hearing wondered how this would play out with parking if the building is booked full.
The project is proposing to use a stacked parking lift to create 17 spaces, which helps add more stalls to a smaller area. It also exceeds the 15-stall requirement of the District.
However, some noted that this may still not be enough.
“The only thing I can’t figure out is… there are 48 rooms,” said developer Doug Day, who has a property across the street.
“People are coming from out of town. It’s unlikely they’re going to take a bus to Squamish. They’re going to drive. So on a weekend, you’d have 48 people arriving and 48 cars. So I’m just wondering where the cars are going to go.”
Day was otherwise supportive of the project.
Matt Fraser, a past vice-chair of Tourism Squamish, said that people will arrive in groups, judging from his experience working with his staff.
Fraser also is Wilson’s business partner at Airhouse.
“You look at our staff — they’re in that age of 20 to 30, and that staff don’t own cars. When they come up here, they come up as groups. They carpool,” said Fraser.
He said his observations of riders gathering at the top of Perth Drive, an area frequented by mountain bikers, seems to suggest this is the case.
“You’re seeing crews of people come out of cars,” he said.
A staff report also said the hotel operators promised to form a partnership with local transportation companies that would provide shared transportation options to help bring guests to Squamish without individual vehicles and provide shuttle options around town.
The arguments appeared to convince council for the most part.
“Folks might still look at it and say that it is underserved in parking, but, I think, generally speaking, they have done a substantial job in forging partnerships with shuttle buses — local and regional — and trying to find some innovative ways of how we’ll get people here and how people will move around once they are here,” said Coun. Jenna Stoner.
