Story:
On Tuesday (June 9) municipal staff presented their Sustainability block concept to council and public ["Tower proposal returns," The Chief, June 12]. This style of development does have benefits but it is a very expensive, complicated and time-consuming process.
Due to these reasons, this style of development is usually done on municipal land and then put under a tender process.
Instead, municipal staff have enticed and effectively forced Westmana to embark on this S-block initiative on lots 41, 44 and 45 with an indication that going down this route will expedite their application process and gain more density. Westmana has agreed to this path and has spent a huge amount of time and money creating a concept that has a high enough population density (height) to accommodate staffs' unclear sustainability requests with little or no significant gain of density from that which has been approved from other downtown projects.
My concern is that in our current economic climate, Westmana and their financiers will be unwilling to wait for council and staff to make the tough and complicated decisions required for the highly restrictive and expensive S-block proposal.
Due to financial complications other local Westmana projects could be put on hold until a clear direction on lots 41, 44 and 45 has been determined. Westmana has proven itself as a good corporate citizen that listens to the public, is generous to the community and comes up with unique solutions.
Westmana has indicated that they are quite flexible with what they will build but they do need to build something sooner rather than later. What they need now is clear direction from staff and council so that they can continue the process and satisfy their investors.
My fear is that the S-block process will be so slow and create so many obstacles and unrealistic conditions that Westmana will be effectively forced out of Squamish. Westmana has indicated that they want to create a highly sustainable development whether or not it is dubbed an S-block.
I propose that council, staff and the Squamish community allow Westmana to continue with applications and come up with a collaborative development proposal that is not dependant on the highly restrictive and elusive S-block constraints. I am sure that Westmana can satisfy most of the desires of the S-block but they might not be able to survive the related bureaucracy.
If Squamish truly wants an S-block then perhaps we should be prepared to take it on as part the SODC lands and not hold up the development of lots 41, 44 and 45 along with other projects as it has been doing already.
We have a developer that is willing to co-operate but needs a concept that is economically viable and a process that is realistic. Squamish needs jobs and economic activity now, so let's not complicate this development with the expensive, restrictive and highly bureaucratic S-block process.
Trevor Chelswick
Squamish
