We learned this week that Squamish's local leaders are involved in a scrap with some of the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District directors and if our local leaders don't successfully argue their case, we could be faced with some ugly growth issues in the future.
The current initiative to create a regional growth strategy is further revealing longstanding divisions within the regional district leadership, as rural leaders don't see things the same way the community leaders see them.
Smart Growth is a concept fully embraced by Squamish and Whistler that doesn't appear to be as highly valued by the SLRD leaders who oversee areas like Birken, D'Arcy and the small pockets of population outside Lillooet.
Mayor Ian Sutherland and the rest of Squamish Council was justifiably worried about the proposed development in the Porteau area.
The Squamish Nation is teaming up with Concord Pacific Developments to create a new community where there is currently little more than some hiking trails and wildlife.
For many who support Smart Growth concepts, it makes little sense to start developing whole new tracts of mostly untouched land when there's still significant development opportunity at Furry Creek and Britannia.
One of the key Smart Grow concepts is to reduce reliance on the automobile. The people of Furry Creek and Britannia don't have commercial operations providing the residents with all their grocery needs, so the residents do most of their grocery shopping outside their community. To get to their favourite store the vast majority travel in vehicles.
Britannia and Furry Creek are established and there is no turning back the clock on those communities now, but it doesn't make Smart Growth sense to break ground for a community that is even farther away than Britannia and Furry Creek.
Supporters of intelligent community planning will want to watch the evolution of the regional growth management plan because it will set the tone for development along the Sea to Sky Highway as the corridor population grows.
Done right, the plan can prevent the unsustainable practice of creating small pockets of housing development every few kilometres along the route.
If the lands between Furry Creek and Brunswick Beach have to be developed, lets only allow that to happen after Furry Creek, Britannia and the small population spots between Kelvin Grove and Horseshoe Bay reach their capacity.
My message won't be popular with the Squamish Nation as the Porteau opportunity is an economic initiative the Nation wants to advance. But, we need to keep sustainability in mind and building communities that force people into their cars to do long trips to get to shopping, work and school is going to negatively impact our air quality and put unneeded pressure on Highway 99.
