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Back to the future

Britannia Beach trades the past for the present
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The Sea to Sky highway is a hypnotic ribbon of oceanic terrain marked by big mountains and tiny towns. Most of us have driven it countless times, but imagine topping the curve of the hill leading down to Britannia Beach and finding a bustling heritage town centre nestled into the crook of Howe Sound. It's entirely possible. Framed by a less-than-gentle slope of dark green coniferous growth, the brightly painted heritage buildings that dominate the small village will be morphing from ghost town to thriving commercial area, if Macdonald Development Corporation and the town's residents get their way.

It is not entirely inaccurate to say the city of 300 is stuck in time. These days, however, its history and architecture can hardly be considered negative factors. In an era defined by the rapid development of highway strip malls it is Britannia's close ties to its colourful mining past that have kept it from being phased out of existence by its commercially dominant neighbour, Squamish. From one vantage point it could be argued that the last decade has given Britannia Beach a fresh start. The success of extensive environmental remediation on the mine site is paying dividends through the rapidly growing health of local marine and ecosystems, and burgeoning commercial and real estate development is serving to enhance, rather than mar its colloquial vibe. It may be hard to imagine Britannia Beach ever being anything other than sleepy - from the tip of the fishing pier to the porch of the general store things move slowly, but the future is beckoning. After decades of inertia, pollution, and joblessness, Britannia Beach is being brought back to life.

 

The Plan

It's fitting that a town whose past was intrinsically shaped by the mining companies that owned it would eventually be purchased by yet another company. But for the first time since 1888, when intrepid explorer and amateur prospector Dr. A.A. Forbes found copper in the mountains around Britannia, it is not a corporation intent on exploiting the area's mineral resources. Despite the colossal and intimidating environmental remediation a decade ago that would have to precede any development, Britannia's pleasant geography and untapped commercial and real estate potential drew Vancouver-based Macdonald Development Corporation (MDC), a family-owned firm with a focus on condominium projects and single-family subdivision communities around North America.

"The biggest problem with Britannia where we are, was in the flatlands and the whole area - nobody wanted to take over the whole area because once you inherited it you inherited all of the liability from all the previous owners," said Bill Baker, MDC project coordinator for the Britannia Beach project.

"Nobody ever wanted to take it over because then you'd have to pay for everything so there have been certain ways to mitigate that."

"Everything we touched once we had all the agreements in place, had to be cleaned up. If we are working on a road and all of a sudden there are some tailings that some mine boss put there to fill a pothole, those tailings have to be taken out, evaluated, and either stored and sent back up the Jane Basin. Everything that is dug up has to be evaluated."

Macdonald may specialize in condominiums and subdivision, but preserving Britannia's history and esthetic is a main priority and part of the long-term draw of the area. Currently, MDC owns 65,000 square feet in the commercial flats right off the highway, of which around 45,000 they expect to develop immediately following land stabilization measures on the landslide-prone hills surrounding the site. Once the permits are in place, Macdonald will move forward on a promise to bring in a White Spot drive-through and small gas station, both of which are seen as crucial "anchor" tenants for future commercial expansion and are being welcomed with open arms by most of the community. Following that, the company's goal is to create a place known for its amenities - essentially creating a destination as enticing as Whistler on the Sea to Sky highway. Baker waxed poetic about the vision, laying out his idea of a bustling, pedestrian-friendly town in the spirit of Granville Island with a bakery, bike store, restaurants, cafés and stores that feature the wares of local artisans.

"In the commercial area across from the mining museum, that's all going to be in the context and character of the mining town," said Baker. "What we are trying to do is find as many jobs for the people that live there as we can. At the General Store, everybody that works there lives there and they share. You can bring your kids to work; you can leave your dog outside. That's where we're trying to go. It's the same with the Blue Bus, it's the same as the post office."

Many small towns with something to preserve resist any kind of change that could be incongruous with the original esthetic. The idea of a fast food restaurant is especially contentious in places that don't already have a strip mall feel. As reported in previous Pique articles, the idea is sitting uncomfortably with the Squamish Lillooet Regional District (SLRD), which is trying to get people away from their cars, but Britannia is a highway community dependent on the travelling public and for local businesses a drive-through and gas station is critical to their success.

Andrew and Alexandra Kuczynski run Gold Trail Jewellers out of a heritage building in Britannia's town centre. On a rainy Friday afternoon in January their shop, like the town, is quieter than usual. It wasn't always this way - when they moved here from Coquitlam four years ago business was decent but construction on the Sea to Sky highway coupled with Olympic aversion has made the past couple of years difficult.

"Friends in Squamish told us about Britannia and we came here, stayed one day," said Alexandra

"That was four years ago but it's an entirely different place now. We had much, much, much bigger traffic, lots of big tour buses, small tour buses. Right now it's an empty place."

"We are hoping that the Macdonald company that is bringing in the White Spot will bring in more people and help the businesses - it will bring more traffic here and everyone needs that."

Down the street from the Kuczynskis, volunteer firefighter Rudy Doornbos couldn't agree more. Leaning against the wall beside an expansive collection of First Nations carvings in The CRS Trading Post next to the General Store, he points to a "for sale" sign posted in the middle of the store. Like the Gold Trail Jewellers, the native art gallery is empty in the late afternoon drizzle. Though Doornbos feels the commercial additions will be a major boon to the community, he and his wife are hoping to sell their business as soon as possible to do a little travelling in warmer climes. As he talks, it's clear that for Doornbos, Britannia Beach is a town where dreams almost came true.

"We just stumbled upon this place and it was for sale then and we were ready for a change, and now we're ready for another change," he said. "Once they get this retailer in, it'll really be something. Hopefully it'll encourage people to get out and explore a little bit."

Doornbos estimates he lost 10 per cent of his business for each year of highway construction on the Sea to Sky between 2005 and 2010, a major contributing factor in his decision to sell.

"There was no consideration," he said. "They put up temporary construction fences all along this stretch of the highway and then put construction trailers behind it. The place looked like a construction zone, you couldn't see anything from the highway, you couldn't get in, couldn't get out (easily)."

Across the gravel parking lot from the CRS Trading Post, the iconic Mountain WoMan restaurant had an entirely different experience during the extensive construction that closed sections of highway for hours each day. The eatery sits parallel to the road in an old blue bus and was a regular favourite with construction workers. After the Mining Museum, Mountain WoMan is the longest running business in town. Owner Lynn Cook moved to the community 27 years ago and has run a thriving business since. She has been on board with Macdonald's plans to develop Britannia Beach since the beginning and wholeheartedly approves of the company's commercial strategy for the town.

"I think it is a very good thing.  I helped push it along and tried to get the Regional District to listen to what we wanted - we want to see it commercially developed down here, it'll be good for Britannia," she said, waving her hand towards the empty gravel lot between her and the General Store. "The Mining Museum has done a fabulous job and we have nothing over on this side other than me and the store and a couple little gift shops and the development will fill all this in."

 

The Clean Up

Mines are extremely taxing on their local environment. Not only is resource extraction a high-energy job, it creates some of the nastiest by-products of industry known on the planet. As Britannia Beach operated as the Commonwealth's largest producer of copper throughout the Twentieth Century when environmental restrictions were either lax or non-existent, the damage to the surrounding area - especially the marine life at the base of the mountains - was extreme. The situation came to a head around 2002, when Macdonald Development Corporation, the Britannia Mine Museum and various departments from the provincial government came together for a brainstorming session through the University of British Columbia's Centre for Sustainability.

"We needed all three of those things to come together," said Kirstin Clausen, executive director of the Britannia Mine Museum, which owns 35 acres of land in the town.

"They were independent of each other but the leveraging of opportunity was there."

"If you're going to be a visionary you have to believe in the vision. The vision was grand. Most days I could see real progress towards the vision so I never lost hope but yes, it was a big, ambitious thing."

Working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, UBC, Macdonald, and various other partners, remediation of the mining museum and the lands around the town progressed through the decade. The largest problem faced by the parties was excessive, gravity fed acid rock drainage that poured through the old mine shafts into Howe Sound. At the start of clean up, the 600 kilograms of contaminants deposited in Howe Sound each day prevented mollusks or barnacles from clinging to its shores. Aided by a UBC-designed Millennium Plug that trapped water in the mines instead of letting it flow through, Britannia also benefited from an on-site water treatment plant by EPCOR. The Mining Museum joined the effort too, creating water catchments on the roofs of various buildings that direct rainwater into manmade ponds without touching the ground.

 

Real Estate

Of the 100 or so houses that make up the bulk of the Britannia Beach township, all were owned by the companies that owned the town until they were bought by Macdonald Development and sold to their occupants in a landmark deal in 2005. The same deal saw Macdonald secure 400 acres for their project and donate another 9,600 acres back to the government.

"We were all given the opportunity to buy, we all won the lottery. We would have never had the opportunity," said Cook of the offer. "Rob Macdonald was more than fair, he gave everyone who lived here, whether they had lived here for one week or 27 years, the same discount - 25 per cent off the appraised value which went to the bank which qualified you for a mortgage. It was a good deal."

The small town feel that has presided over Britannia Beach for the past century is still the dominant force that keeps residents there today. Though a number of large, high-end houses are being built on lots sold by Macdonald high on the hillside, locals say little will change the security that presides over the ocean-side community.

"I ended up being a single mother here and it was very safe. We never worried about our children because there was no one that came into the community that you didn't know," continued Cook. "It was very small, everybody looked out for everyone else and you didn't worry about locking your doors."

Realtor Peter Belostotsky said the market value of homes in Britannia Beach range between $180,000 to about $1.4 million. Currently, between 10 - 15 new water view houses are being built on lots above the town.

 

Makin Lands

It's a curious thing, this significant chunk of waterfront land just south of Britannia Beach. Presided over by badly fading signs that introduce the Makin Lands as North America's most extraordinary new town, there is little to indicate anything will ever happen. The signage, it turns out, was printed by a company that used indoor ink - not a sturdy product when exposed to the temperamental whims of the Pacific Northwest weather. Behind it, 600 acres of cleared land in varying states of re-growth have been sitting for years while locked in a family dispute. Architects working on the project say the owner - an elusive, extremely private Mr. Ernest Mahood - is making good on the promise to deliver a new community, albeit however so slowly. The plan includes developing the land into a sustainable town with a thriving commercial centre. Though no official applications for development have been submitted to the SLRD, a rough draft of an Official Community Plan is in place and Folio Hotel and Resort Architecture is working on the designs daily. Four wells, some electricity and two creeks adorn the property, making development feasible, though Baker, Belostotsky, Clausen, and Folio architects admit a long, arduous public process lies ahead.

"It's a pretty interesting project, it's very unusual. At this point it's more of a planning project. It's a three dimensional planning exercise and it will be a public process so taking it through the public will be interesting and dealing with all the government bodies always has the level of interest," said Folio's Ron Lea, who has been working on the design since 2008. "If there is a village there, the village will have a huge variety of interest within it, so we've been talking to college groups and the residential will be a big part of it. We've talked to some retail people, institutions of various kinds. It'll have a real diversity to it in terms of a town. The idea is not for it to be a bedroom community, that's not the intent. It's intended to be a community that is self-sufficient and also highly sustainable."

Determining a market for the real estate once plans are approved and in place could prove difficult in today's current real estate climate.

"I don't think there's a real market for that type of thing right now, just because of general economics - the market is not strong. There definitely is, moving forward into the future but it's a slow moving into the future these days," said Belostotsky of the project. "There is slow and steady growth here for the long term foreseeable future, the next 10 to 30 years. If you consider all that Makin Land and other areas around here, there is lots of room to build. I think long term, quite long, there could be between 2,000 to 4,000 homes built."

Lea said the owner's goals for the project include keeping it sustainable by using renewable energy sources, implementing an efficient transportation system and dealing responsibly with the environment in terms of plant material and topography.

"It's a pretty enlightened project in terms of what is being planned, but it's got a long time to unfold," he continued.

 

Back to the Future

Since it was founded, Britannia Beach has been a world apart. Even in hard times it has run itself, more likely to look inward for help than outward but as it faces the future it is clear that the town's arms are now open to the world. Over 60,000 people have lived in this tiny hamlet over the past 100 years and the collective memories of Britannia's thriving community are strong enough to imagine another successful bloom of the residential and commercial variety. As social movement towards more sustainable, affordable, local travel options gather steam, development at Britannia Beach and the Makin Lands might just help give the Sea to Sky corridor the extra boost it needs to grow in all the right directions.

 

 



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