A marketing professional who also helped run the op-ed website Squamish Forward is seeking a seat on council.
Gordon Addison is the digital marketing director of Marwick Marketing.
On Sept. 15, Addison shared his thoughts on a number of key issues in Squamish, such as housing, growth, parking, development, Brennan Park and more.
He called affordable housing the Number 1 issue in town.
"[There's] a lot of criticism of the previous council, but they get an A-plus on setting up that housing authority," said Addison.
"They've got great people there, and we've got to stay the course and get some housing units under our control and build that."
Addison said it's not a magic bullet, but it's going in the right direction.
"I'd love to see that move towards somewhere where you can actually build some home equity," he said.
"Can we push developers to offer some of the units where people who are qualified in Squamish working here can actually buy into a home?...If we're going to keep people here, we've got to see a future."
He also added he would like to see a variety of housing, not just condos. This would include townhouses, rowhouses and single-family homes.
"I don't think single-family housing is a dirty word," said Addison, adding that limits could be placed on the size of the house to keep prices from getting out of control. He cited the Amblepath development as an example of what he deemed good sizing for single-family homes.
"If you limit the size of the house, you don't necessarily get a mansion, and you can't necessarily sell that for a huge amount," he said.
Regarding Brennan Park Recreation Centre, he said the priorities are a water park and another turf soccer field. He said that improvements could be made, but completely rebuilding the old facility is likely a prohibitive cost.
"You can make a million-dollar promise in this business, but you can't make a $100-million promise," Addison said.
He said he'd like to see a land-lift-based policy regarding community amenity contributions. This means every time land increases in value as a result of rezoning, the municipality will expect the developer to pay the town a percentage of that amount.
He said the District's proposed revisions to their community amenity contribution policy are an improvement, but he'd like to see the municipality go further.
"Their threshold for doing land-lift based [contributions] was too high, and they should look at it from lower amounts," said Addison.
He also said there should be a stop to allowing parking variances that allow developers to decrease the amount of parking they build.
"We're making downtown nonfunctional with all the parking variances," Addison said.
Active transportation is great, but not always practical.
"I can't show up at work all wet in muddy clothes," he said.
Parking is all connected. If residents don't have enough parking, they'll start taking up spaces that are needed by people who work in the area, Addison said.
"If we just stopped giving away parking variances we're 75% of the way there," he said.
A parkade could be useful, but would be a lower priority than Brennan Park, Addison added.
