You might say there was a tinge of deja vu in the air.
At yet another public hearing for the Macdonald Development project in Britannia Beach, held March 14 at the Britannia Mine Museum, commenters once again expressed support for the development.
"I believe we're all in favour of this project — we were very supportive last time, in the last public meeting and we are all very supportive once again," said Lynne Cooke, one of the handful of Britannia residents who commented.
Over a dozen people were at the meeting. No one present expressed opposition to the project.
"I think Number 1 — the community was there, but community's been on side for last year, so they just came to reaffirm that they were on side," said Bill Baker, project manager for Macdonald Development.
Rezoning applications for developments typically don't go through more than one public hearing, but in this case, a change in plans warranted a second take.
Macdonald Development modified its design to exclude a piece of Crown land incorporated in its original blueprint.
Previously, the company anticipated being able to acquire a piece of Crown land adjacent to its property and had drawn up its plans under the assumption that would happen.
Negotiations, however, fell apart and as a result, the company said it wasn't able to purchase the property from the province.
However, Macdonald and the SLRD hope to convert that sliver of land into park space. Details have yet to be worked out with the province, but if all goes according to plan, the area will be cleaned of hazardous material, fill will be added and a park will be built on it.
The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District has a licence of occupation for that land, which they are hoping to extend into a more permanent arrangement, possibly through acquiring tenure.
The latest iteration of the development features 6,000 less square feet of commercial space than before, but few changes to residential units.
It's anticipated there will be 64 townhouse units, nine live-work spaces and 11 rental units.
The previous design featured 60 for-purchase townhomes at market rate, 13 market live-work townhomes, and 14 rental apartments
Heritage protections for the historical buildings on site are also part of the deal.
