The District of Squamish council unanimously carried a motion through three readings on June 30, to approve a three building, 307 unit development on an undeveloped forested lot off Ross Road.
The development, known as the Cheekeye Parcel E South Apartments, will bring three five storey buildings to a currently undeveloped site near Don Ross Middle School and Brackendale Elementary. 85 of the units will be affordable rental homes, with ground-floor commercial space, which could be used for a daycare. Another 85 will be market rental units, and the remaining 137 will be condos. According to the staff report presented to council, the project alone would fulfill 96.8 per cent of the District’s annual housing target under the province’s methodology, or 44.8 per cent according to the 2023 Housing Needs Report.
If it goes ahead as planned, the site would include more parking than the bylaw requires, bike storage, a shared courtyard with play structures for kids, and an outdoor pool for residents of the larger condo building. Overall, the project meets the requirements of its zoning and exceeds several of the District’s baseline standards, including parking, accessibility and bicycle storage.
“There’s no surprises in any of what’s in front of us today,” said Councillor John French. “This is consistent with the bigger plan…for this area, this is my motivation for putting this motion forward.”
While Councillor Chris Pettingill ultimately voted to carry the motion, he had concerns about the design’s lack of a dog park in the area, and thought that in future DPA updates dog parks should be considered. He also had concerns about the accessibility of the design, saying “It’s not good enough to have a theoretically accessible route, if we’re serious about accessibility it needs to be the most efficient route.”
The project went before the District’s Advisory Design Panel back in January, where members backed the development but asked for a handful of changes, including better screening around an exposed parking structure, swapping out a few non-native plants, more accessible picnic tables, and an inclusive change room, among other tweaks. According to the report, the developer’s revisions addressed those concerns.The landscaping has also been designed with wildfire safety in mind, since the property falls within a designated wildfire risk area.
The development was posted publicly and a sign was put up at the site, as required, but the District received no comments from residents before the vote.
“I want to recognize that this is the first in the area of what has been a substantive investment in the barrier and the ongoing work on Ross Road,” said Mayor Armand Hurford. “It’s really quite exciting to see this precinct take off and to do it in such a substantive way.”
