District clarifies Loggers East Neighbourhood Plan facts

The District wishes to clarify facts regarding the Loggers East Neighbourhood Plan. 

The Loggers East Neighbourhood Plan is located within the “Growth Management Boundary” where residential development is already allowed.

The Official Community Plan (OCP) requires that the “Steep Slope Development Permit Area Guidelines (DPA)” be prepared for Council to consider an OCP amendment to develop beyond the Growth Management Boundary. The Steep Slope DPA is not a requirement to allow new development within the Growth Management Boundary (i.e. the Loggers East Plan area).

The objective of the Steep Slope DPA is to manage development in steep slope areas to reduce risk to life and property, prevent risks to down-slope properties, and prevent slope destabilization. The DPA also considers the implications of future climate change on slope stability. 

Steep Slopes & Loggers East Neighbourhood Plan 

A Slope Hazard Assessment was completed as background to the Loggers East Neighbourhood Plan in order to identify areas of past slope failure, sloughing, or major erosion and to identify drainage channels and areas of soil deposition. The Loggers East Sub Area Plan will contain policies and guidelines regarding development in these steeply sloped areas.

The Loggers East area is currently zoned to allow for residential development, with areas already zoned RL-1 or RS-1, and have been zoned as such for many years. Residential development has therefore been allowed on these lands for many years, without the requirement for a Steep Slope DPA. The Loggers East Plan will allow for future rezonings to change the type of residential development allowed, and create a number of new requirements for development to follow. 

The Loggers East Neighbourhood Plan does not propose 500 units on steep slopes. Steep Slopes makes up a small section of this Sub Area plan area and as per the Sub Area plan, there are restrictions on the steep slope development area.

Despite the recent social media claims of a developer who is subject to the OCP’s Steep Slope DPA requirement, the Mayor has no direct nor indirect interest in or relationship with any developer involved in the Loggers East Neighbourhood, nor does she have any pecuniary interests in the Loggers East neighbourhood, which is a broad neighbourhood plan initiated by the District of Squamish and not an application from a developer.

For clarity, the Mayor suspended her consulting business on January 1, 2020.

The public can view the Growth Management Boundary (page 2, Schedule C) and other land use schedules that form the backbone to the OCP here. The Squamish 2040 Official Community Plan (OCP) was adopted in 2018 following a two-year process involving substantial public engagement. The OCP is the guide used by current and future Councils and District staff for decision making on planning and land management issues, among other things.

February 6, 2021