Macdonald Development’s proposed residential-commercial project in Britannia Beach breezed through a public hearing on Tuesday with little trouble.
During the gathering, which dozens attended, virtually every person who spoke expressed support for the development.
“I think it’s at a point now where people are on-side,” said Bill Baker, project manager for the company. “We’re really happy. We just want to get to work.”
Britannia Oceanfront Developments, the subsidiary of Macdonald responsible for the project, is proposing 60 for-purchase townhomes at market rate, 13 market live-work townhomes, and 14 rental apartments.
As a condition, the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District is asking the developer to keep those 14 rental apartments at 80 per cent of the average market rental rate in the area.
Six of them must be rented to people who work in the Britannia Beach area.
A daycare, gym and the revamping of the community hall are all proposed as well.
The development is expected to be constructed in front of the mining museum.
While no one present at the meeting said they were against the project, there was some debate over the details of the development.
Flood protection was brought up numerous times.
Officials from the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District said that the introduction of flood mitigation measures is a condition of the development.
A Geobrugg safety net will have to be installed to filter out debris in case a flood occurs.
The SLRD is asking Macdonald to consider depositing $285,000 into a reserve as insurance just in case a flood occurs before enough tax dollars have been collected to pay the costs of potential damage.
An information report from the SLRD said that it’s believed a substantial flood — deemed a one-in-50 year event — would cost about $425,000.
The total annual costs for flood mitigation, including maintenance of the Geobrugg safety net, are estimated by the regional district to cost about $23,200, a report said.
SLRD staff said they’re hoping that current Britannia residents will pay 25 per cent of the flood maintenance costs at most, while new residents moving into the development will shoulder the rest.
For current residents, staff said that would work out to an additional property tax fee of between $6.20 to $52.27 each year.
“We’ll be paying the yearly maintenance and it’ll be...forever,” said John Ross, one of the Britannia residents at the meeting.
SLRD planner Kim Needham replied that if the flood disaster fund built up enough tax money, staff might consider halting fees and putting the money in a savings fund that could grow itself with interest.
There were also questions about proposed property tax breaks for Macdonald Development.
The developer is asking for a five-year tax exemption on all its commercial units — including non-heritage units — because the company is putting in money to restore historical mining shops in the area.
“It shouldn’t be a big issue to do that,” said Needham.
“It would shift the tax burden to the residential portion of their property.”
She also said earlier these requests aren’t unusual from companies that are restoring heritage facilities.
Another point of the discussion was the proposed daycare.
The SLRD is asking Macdonald to keep rental rates at that facility 50 per cent of the average market rate in the Squamish-Whistler area.
Resident Max Hufton asked if there was a covenant that would pass that reduced cost down to
clients.
“Because otherwise, it’s just a great steal for anyone operating the service, right?” Hufton said.
SLRD staff said there weren’t any agreements in place to ensure this. It’s an agreement that needs to be made between the developer and whoever rents the space, staff said.
However, in theory, reduced rents would be passed down to clients as cheaper daycare, Needham said.
