District blindsided me on rezoning, says property owner

Surprised, disappointed, and completely blindsided: That is how a local property owner sums up his feelings about the way district is going about rezoning his property.

Warren McDougall owns a property near the Squamish Adventure Centre that is zoned Resource, or RE, which allows him one structure.

In an interview with The Squamish Reporter, McDougall says he had no plans to develop the property in the near future, although he did envision a horse stable with a home, which the current zoning allows.

But the district plans to rezone it to eco-tourism, which will substantially reduce the value and essentially render the property useless, he says.

What is even more disappointing, Warren says, is that he was emailed about this change just five days before the first and second reading.

“If I had missed that email, I wouldn’t have known about it,” he says.

“It almost feels like a hidden agenda because there was absolutely no warning and there was zero input. The property isn’t zoned for development and it’s not even on the radar, so it’s beyond me on how anyone even found this parcel to rezone,” he says.

In a letter to the district, McDougall also says the zoning change is redundant because he would have had to go to the district in case he wanted to build something.

“This is where I suspect I am not being given the full spectrum of information as to why this needs to be done so urgently, or at all,” he says.

McDougall says the district could have offered to purchase the property or a land swap.

“If the District of Squamish is keen on keeping this parcel of land as is, the correct course of action is to have a sit-down discussion with myself, not a quick push-through at a council meeting,” he says.