Last Saturday representatives from the Squamish Nation met at Eric Cardinall Hall with their Gibsons waterfront property tenants to talk about redevelopment of the area.
Senior operating officer for the Squamish Nation Toby Baker said the meeting was closed to the public out of respect for the tenants so they could hear about the proposed redevelopment first.
"They (the tenants) are our primary stakeholders and they deserved to hear the information before it was made public," said Baker. He said over the past four years, the Squamish Nation has had ongoing "clear and honest" conversations with the tenants about what was likely to happen to the property at some point.
Baker said the last leasehold expired 17 years ago and the property reached a point where it was in a terrible state and the only thing making financial sense was complete redevelopment of the area. He said tenants have been given a full year to make alternative arrangements and look for other housing.
"We are trying to do everything in a human empathetic way," said Baker.
In a news release, the Squamish Nation said it is planning much-needed development on its 35-acre (14.16 hectare) waterfront property east of the Landing in Gibsons. The area is on what is known as the Chekwelp Reserve and has 38 tenants who for the past 15 years have been renting on a monthly basis.
Because of health, safety and environmental reasons, the Squamish Nation said it plans to develop the 48 separate lots into single-family homes and possibly low-rise town homes with modern services and high environmental standards.
By this, Baker said the community has strong feelings about green environments, as well, the area is on First Nations land and the design has to appeal to the membership and to the residents.
"At the end of the day, we have very little waterfront land where we can do our traditional spiritual work, that involves water," said Baker. He said within the planned redevelopment, they are hoping to put aside a small space on lot 26A that will be developed with cultural amenities in mind.
To the question of whether the properties will have affordable units, Baker said there is still a lot of work and planning to be done in determining exactly what components will be involved in the development. However, he said one of the priorities is to do a market analysis because he said there are a massive number of people who need service by the housing industry, including members of the Squamish Nation, and those needs will be taken into account during the planning process.One of the other priorities on the Squamish Nation's list is a government-to-government protocol agreement with the Town of Gibsons. Once this is in place, Baker said it will help with other discussions like the ones that will come up during their property redevelopment.
