Garibaldi Estates Neighbourhood Plan public engagement to begin fall 2021

The District is starting a public process to develop, with the community, a neighbourhood plan for the Garibaldi Estates. This is expected to be a two-year process that District Planning staff will begin with residents this fall.

Key Takeaways:

• Development pressure is increasing in the Garibaldi Estates as private properties change ownership. The neighbourhood plan will ensure any future development is in line with the vision of residents and the Squamish 2040 Official Community Plan (OCP).
• The new neighbourhood plan will not change the current zoning of properties in the Garibaldi Estates. Instead, it will provide the necessary policy to guide future rezoning applications as they are proposed over the next 20 or more years.

Development Interest:

• Since the adoption of the OCP in 2018 District staff have received a number of development inquiries for this area. The District has consistently asked developers to wait until the neighbourhood planning process is complete before submitting any applications.
• The goal is to ensure that any development proposals are aligned with a community-driven vision for the area that is informed by residents and the OCP. This will limit ad hoc developments that only address individual development interests.
• The OCP identifies Garibaldi Estates as an area that can support infill. However, The District has not provided any information to developers who may be buying or selling land in advance of this process.. Land speculation is strongly discouraged at this time given that there is no certainty regarding the potential outcome of the planning process.
• To be clear, if developers are approaching property owners, they are doing so before the District and the neighbourhood residents have had chance to develop the neighbourhood plan.

Why a neighbourhood plan, and why now

The natural environment surrounding Squamish supports an incredible lifestyle. Given our proximity to the Lower Mainland, it’s unsurprising that Squamish is experiencing rapid growth. This, in combination with other factors such as an ongoing residential housing supply shortage across Canada, creates a high demand for housing in Squamish and affordability challenges.

To address these challenges, the District is working to both manage growth and support affordability with the tools available to local government.

It is critical to preserve the surrounding environment that fuels our lifestyle.

It is also critical to provide a diverse range of housing that meet the needs of current and future residents. Infill is a way to find new housing opportunities within existing Squamish neighbourhoods, without sprawling beyond the current community footprint. Infill includes housing forms such as laneway homes, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhomes, row houses and multi-use buildings.

This neighbourhood planning process will work with Squamish residents and non-profit organizations to determine how infill housing could be accommodated in the Garibaldi Estates over the next 20 years and beyond.

Neighbourhood infill is important in the District for many reasons. This includes those already mentioned such as diversity of housing forms which leads to more affordability. It also aligns with the goals of more complete neighbourhoods to support community amenities, services, transit, and employment space, and helps share the cost of existing infrastructure over a greater number of taxpayers. This is good for liveability, the environment and addressing climate change. Staff will explore these ideas in more detail with residents through the neighbourhood planning process.

Why Garibaldi Estates

The Squamish 2040 Official Community Plan identifies Garibaldi Estates as a key location to accommodate neighbourhood infill within the District given its central location along the core transit network and highway, its role as an existing major commercial hub and its lower flood risk relative to many other areas of the community within the floodplain.

While the District needs to find ways to incorporate neighbourhood infill in the Estates, what that looks like has not been pre-determined. Instead, staff will work with residents to develop a plan that is a good fit for the neighbourhood and improves the livability of the area.

What comes next

The neighbourhood planning process is expected to take about two years and will begin in late September. The District’s goal is to reach a broad range of residents throughout the process, both in the neighbourhood and across the community.

We recognize residents have many questions and staff look forward to further conversation once the process gets underway. 

For more information about the neighbourhood planning process, the proposed Garibaldi Estates neighbourhood plan area, the Veteran's Land Act (VLA) Lands and to submit your comments to staff, please visit our project page at squamish.ca/garibaldi-estates. 

August 11, 2021