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Garibaldi ski resort proposal re-emerges

Squamish mayor committed to getting resort within boundaries

By Cindy Filipenko

The proposed Garibaldi ski resort has reemerged, and in a hurry.

The proponents want to break ground next summer on a project that ultimately would have 22,000 bed units and just 24 ski runs. The proposal encompasses approximately 12,000 acres and has a budget of more than $800 million.

In the works for nearly 18 years, the Squamish-area project’s last serious plan was tabled in 1997. At that time, the proposal was to build a ski resort at Brohm Ridge that would be approximately 6,260 acres with predominantly commercial accommodation.

In 2002, the project was transferred to Vancouver developers Luigi Aquilini and Bob Gaglardi. Under the company name of Garibaldi at Squamish Inc., the developers entered negotiations with the province that were put on hold when court challenges from the Squamish Nation emerged.

With a settlement currently in the works between Garibaldi at Squamish and the Squamish Nation, the proposal has been brought forward again for consideration. It was a hot topic at Monday’s Squamish-Lillooet Regional District meeting.

Steve Olmstead, planner for the SLRD, cautioned that the project currently under consideration is far different than the one tabled in 1997.

“We have a development that is calling for 22,000 bed units. This is 40 per cent as large as Whistler,” said Olmstead. “We’re concerned that we’re   (staff) going to be involved in a very intensive process.”

Part of this intensity comes from the developer’s desire to break ground in July, 2007. The provincial environmental assessment is underway, a process that Olmstead described as a “180-day clock that has started to tick.”

The plan became known Oct. 11 at a preliminary application meeting attended by the District of Squamish and the SLRD, as the current footprint of the project falls under both jurisdictions.

Olmstead voiced the concern that the time limits may prove prohibitive due to the scope of work that needs to be undertaken to determine the feasibility of the project. He pointed out that environmental assessments also take into consideration the socio-economic impacts of development.

“That’s one area where materials from the mid-to-late ’90s could be quite out of date,” he said.

Squamish Mayor Ian Sutherland noted that his community has had a number of meetings with the province over the years about this project, that the project has vast community support and would mean significant and long-lasting job creation for his community.

SLRD Chair John Turner, who is also director for Area D, the portion of the regional district potentially most affected by the project, was concerned about workload and project cost.

“If both District of Squamish and SLRD are working on this we need clarity of costs and how they are being portioned,” he stated.

Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed spoke about the need to ensure the project reflects the objectives of the Regional Growth Strategy.

“In my mind one of the key things I was hoping to achieve during the RGS was to establish containment boundaries,” said Melamed.

“Today’s proposal is unrecognizable from what was originally an alpine development, it is significantly lower in the valley and will have significant impact on the corridor. My preference would be to see this put aside until the RGS is completed.

“I think it behooves us to think long-term and try to understand how the completion of Squamish’s existing development plans affect future development.”

Sutherland disagreed with Melamed’s suggestion.

“The whole concept of Garibaldi at Squamish predates the RGS and Memorandum of Understanding. Done the right way it could be a very important thing for Squamish. From a community point of view it’s always gotten good support and been intriguing to the people of Squamish,” said Sutherland.

In addition to substantial commercial accommodation, the project also calls for 5,100 single-family homes to be built as part of Garibaldi at Squamish. Director Turner noted that this constituted more than one-third of the estimated 14,000 homes the region will need over the next 30 years.

“This is a big project, that’s been on the books for a long way. My understanding is that Squamish is in favour of moving forward. A lot of it is dependent upon timing — it’s different if we’re looking at this as a 25-year project as opposed to a five-year project.”

Mayor Sutherland said that he would be seeking boundary expansion to ensure that the project was entirely within the District of Squamish boundaries, therefore negating any need for SLRD involvement.

“Where the boundary lies is less of an issue than the magnitude of the impact a project this size will have in the corridor,” said Melamed, citing transportation, absorption and air quality issues. It was once a ski area and now it’s a real estate development with a little ski area attached.”

Sutherland took exception to Melamed’s comment noting that the proposed ski area featured 24 runs.

“If this board doesn’t want to go ahead with the project. Vote it down. It might be better. The RGS Elected Officials Forum does no good. We don't want to decrease our clock by a fair amount of time. I would be much happier if the board said today that we don’t want to touch this,” said Sutherland.

SLRD administrator Paul Edgington felt that the project should be considered in the RGS.

“Something of this size at 20,000+ (bed units) should be in the RGS. It has significant potential. It’s not one of the planned communities in the existing bylaw. Some discussion in the RGS on how to resolve this development is appropriate,” he said.

Edgington said that he saw no reason not to have concurrent dialogue at local and land use-planning levels.

“This is an issue of a provincial government process that seems out of sync with local government processes. The developer’s timeline is extremely ambitious,” the administrator stated.

Melamed made the motion that the issue be brought to the next RGS Elected Officials Forum meeting with the intention to establish guiding principles for the development’s application. The motion passed with directors Sutherland, Raj Khalon and Susie Gimse in opposition.