A mini adventure hub for an eco-toilet. That is the trade-off a local developer is proposing to the Squamish council as part of a plan change for Community Amenity Contribution.
As part of its Skyridge rezoning, Diamond Head Development agreed to install an eco-toilet along one of the trails in the north-east corner of the development for $25,000.
The developer has now written to council saying the eco-toilet isn’t desired by Skyridge residents, according to the communication the developer has received from local residents.
Staff agrees with the developer that placing a toilet in the north-east corner of the Skyridge site will not be practical.
“Without there being a highly trafficked staging and access point on the Skyridge site, a public toilet may not provide notable benefit to the community,” says a staff report.
The staff did explore placing a toilet at the very end of Tantalus Rd and within the vicinity of Tantalus Road and Dowad Drive intersection areas. But the idea was rejected because “eco-toilets require frequent servicing well beyond what is required for a standard public toilet”.
At a committee-of-whole meeting, the staff suggested two options to divert the $25,000 funding. 60 per cent or $15,000 could go towards a Brackentrail bypass trail that would be developed within district parkland adjacent to Hop Ranch Creek. The remaining 40 per cent of these funds could go towards a mini recreation hub near the Squamish Montessori School that would consist of a bike wash station, bike racks, and perhaps tools or landscaping.
Councillor Jenna Stoner expressed her concerns with lack of a toilet. “If you are riding your bike or running and you need to go to washroom, then you have to use the forest or someone’s yard,” she said. “We got a lot of letters during the discussion about Lot 6 being used as a trail. We heard a lot of concerns about people using the lawns as a washroom.”
Councillor Chris Pettingill said there was value in having a toilet, perhaps 100 metres off the main route. District official Gary Buxton said the best location for this amenity would be at the bottom of Dowad as part of the mini adventure hub.
With Councillor John French opposed, the council has directed the staff to consider development of an adventure hub at the bottom of Dowad and Tantalus Road. The motion, however, isn’t final as it needs to be ratified at a council meeting in September.
David Lassmann says
One thing that is woefully absent in Squamish is public toilets. Another would be parking. It seems to me that the planning for our local community has really dropped the ball on both of these. By the way, when building separate toilet facilities for men and women there should be about 8 times as many stalls for women as for men. Men typically are very quick when using urinals.
Ralph Fulber says
Some things come full circle. Outhouses are very low maintenance and given some modern upgrades along the lines of the Clivus Multrum (composting toilet) we should be able to put some toilets along popular recreational routes that meet and exceed sanitary concerns. Tired of all the toilet paper around our forests and trails.
Diane Payette says
Such an installation at the corner of Tantalus & Dowad would increase the already saturated parking on our street. It would also affect the value of my property in the Galleries building as vanlifers would most probably come and settle right in front of our homes. Interesting that the Council seems to value the voices of Skyridge’s new residents along with their developer, over the voices of already established residents who owns properties of a lesser value than the Skyridge ones. The Galleries owners as well as those in Greenside Estates have been paying municipal taxes for a long time and our opinions should matter as much as the owners of a new development.
Eric says
Currently the trails in that area predominately cater to one user group, mountain bikers. Given that there is a public toilet a 15 minute pedal away at Alice Lake, or 10 minute pedal to the gas station on Tantalus a toilet is really not the best use of resources for the given area in my opinion. That said the end of Tantalus does see more traffic and some hikers as well, perhaps that would be more suitable? I’d be curious how much thought went into how the development of the Cheema lands will play out in how the user groups utilise the area. At this point it may be too early to tell.