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The second
draft of the Downtown Squamish Transport Plan is ready
for public review, please click here to
download the draft report #2e and view the
exhibits.
Objectives
Squamish is a rapidly
growing community, driven largely
by the
growth in proposed development in the Downtown
peninsula. Through its partnership with Smart
Growth on the Ground (SGOG), the District has assembled
a Downtown Squamish Concept Plan that will guide the
community down the road towards sustainable development.
Ultimately, our objective is to:
-
undergo a public consultation process through which
all stakeholder issues and concerns are identified
and prioritized;
-
develop alternatives
that address the issues of the community;
-
evaluate the
alternatives and identify the options preferred by
the community;
-
develop a transport
plan update guided by Smart Growth principles to be
embedded into the Official Community Plan.
Challenges & Approach
Squamish is predominantly a linear community, oriented
on both sides of Highway 99. There are few alternatives
to Highway 99 for travelling between the various areas
of Squamish making intermunicipal linkages and highway
crossings two planning challenges that the project team
will face. The downtown being located on a peninsula
adds an additional constraint to access. Providing
optimal connectivity using alternative modes such as
transit and cycling in conjunction with a comprehensive
review of the road network will be required to ensure
that adequate access is provided for to the downtown.
Planning for a future transportation network in order to
accommodate projected population and employment levels
is a vital task of any municipal organization. It must
be done in a controlled and staged manner in order to
ensure that future traffic volumes and its associated
infrastructure do not compromise the livability of the
community.
Support from the community as a whole for future
municipal transportation facilities depends on input
from its members, making the transparency and
interactivity of the consultative process both a
priority and a necessity to the work program.
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