After a three-day design charette, Gibsons' residents got a first peek at what the future of development around Gibsons Harbour may look like in the years to come.
Consultants from design firm Matrix Architecture presented their vision at an open house Friday night, Oct. 30, and the response was resoundingly in favour.
"I saw people dancing, literally, out of the hall afterwards saying 'they got it, they got it, they got it,"" said director of planning for Gibsons, Chris Marshall.
Consultants presented a series of rough drawings, maps and models that summarized and balanced all the input from residents who attended previous open houses. Marshall said the consultants were able to capture the common themes presented and put them into the vision.
"What they did was present the top six or eight themes that came out of the open houses things like retaining the small village character, maintain the working harbour aspect of the harbour, continuous waterfront walkway, more waterfront park," he said.
The plan notably calls only for development that fits within the existing feel and build of the Town, as opposed to wiping out entire blocks and replacing them with large-scale or drastically different buildings.
"It's not that they're saying 'no development.' They're saying 'development that fits in with the existing character of the community,'" Marshall said.
He said that means buildings that will fit within the existing height, form and style that are already around the Harbour.
Large-scale developments like the previous hotels/convention centre or condo proposed for Shoal Bay and Hyack Marine do not appear in the plan. Instead, a much smaller scale hotel and convention centre is visioned to wrap around the Inglis House on School Road.
Also in the vision is a possible land swap between Shoal Bay lands and Holland lands allowing for an expansion of the Gibsons Public Library.
Marshall said the Shoal Bay lands could then be partially developed, but mainly used for wetland park and festival grounds.
For the harbour itself, there are plans for a barge loading area as well as a boat launch and maintenance area on the other side of the marina office.
Matrix architect Paul Lebofsky said it felt good knowing the vision his team put together reflected that of Gibsons residents' priorities.
"It was extremely positive. We felt gratified that the town's people that attended let us know that they thought we listened to their concerns which is what this was all about really," he said.
Lebofsky's team will hold one more open house and prepare a final report, completing phase one of the harbour plan. Phase two, which will include more details like parking, traffic, services and amenities will begin in 2010.
