Sunstone Ridge wheels begin to turn

Question file photo by Megan Grittani-Livingston

Brian Young and Cam McIvor, two of the people involved with the Sunstone Ridge development proposal, are seen here in a photo from January 2009.

The developers and landowners who control an approximately 400-hectare parcel of land about three kilometres east of Pemberton are moving forward with planning and discussions for a comprehensive new neighbourhood on the site.

The three landowners — the Lil’wat Nation, Ravens Crest Developments and the Biro/Sabre Group — are working together as the Sunstone Ridge Group to develop a comprehensive neighbourhood plan for the property.

“This is a very significant proposal,” SLRD Director of Planning and Development Steven Olmstead said at Monday’s (Dec. 14) meeting of the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District board, in opening discussions about the Sunstone Ridge Preliminary Neighbourhood Concept Plan.

The submitted plan gives a general overview of the site conditions, the possible neighbourhood elements and the principles that are expected to shape development on the site. The Sunstone Ridge lands are situated south of Ivey and Mosquito lakes, mainly on south- and southwest-facing slopes on the north side of the Lillooet River Valley.

In the preliminary concept plan, the uses proposed for the lands include single- and multi-family residential forms, affordable housing options, neighbourhood commercial uses and public parks, trails and open spaces, plus possible recreation facilities and an independent school that has been proposed for a 16-hectare portion of the Ravens Crest lands.

An SLRD staff report states that the majority of the Sunstone Ridge site is designated as a “special planning area” in the Area C Official Community Plan (OCP), applied to areas that “have the potential to be developed within the next five years.”

For any development to proceed, the site needs a new OCP designation with thorough planning policies to guide the neighbourhood’s growth, and the OCP sets out a number of directions and basic criteria for what should happen in the area.

“Our submission to date is preliminary in nature,” Andrew Beaird of EABB Planning Services told the board, adding that the development group is looking forward to working with the SLRD for consultations to nail down detailed plans.

Beaird is the agent for the Sunstone Ridge Group landowners in this application to the SLRD, and EABB Planning Services was one of eight consulting firms whose staff prepared the preliminary neighbourhood concept plan.

In a letter to the board, Beaird wrote that the Sunstone Ridge Group wants to consider two sites along with the first phase of their comprehensive planning: the Ravens Crest lands for the proposed independent school, and about nine hectares to the west of the school site that would be donated to the community primarily for “recreation use, wetland enhancement and agricultural infrastructure improvements.”

Ravens Crest, which has been pursuing development of an independent boarding school with GEMS Education, received conditional approval for the non-farm use of the site from the Agricultural Land Commission in May. Bylaws to allow the school have been in the works at the SLRD, but concerns have been raised about aspects such as related housing and transportation questions.

Brian Young of Young Developments, which is now the majority shareholder of the Ravens Crest lands, said the group still hopes to make the school a reality and will keep everyone in the community up to speed.

“We continue conversations with GEMS,” he said.

The SLRD staff report identifies a number of initial issues to be addressed with the project, including more information about the proposed density and site uses, consistency with the Regional Growth Strategy, servicing, site access, ways to protect the popular Mosquito Lake trail network and creation of community amenities.

Several SLRD directors said they want more information about the project, while raising questions about the aggressive timeline proposed by the developers for the process and the economic viability of having multiple developments moving forward at once.

Mayor Jordan Sturdy said he supported Olmstead’s emphasis on the need for a coordinated plan for the overall site, while saying that the school issue is “time sensitive to some degree” and should be dealt with alongside the neighbourhood plan.

Electoral Area C Director Susie Gimse said the proposal is “very preliminary,” and she is looking forward to having a technical working group and key stakeholders start their efforts to firm up components of the overall plan.

“I want that work to begin,” she said on Tuesday (Dec. 15).

The SLRD directors voted to offer consultation opportunities for groups such as the public, the Village of Pemberton, First Nations governments, provincial ministries, the ALC, School District 48 and local organizations such as the Pemberton and District Chamber of Commerce.

The board also voted to set up meetings for a technical working group to review the proposal and get comments from interested parties. Olmstead noted that close work with the Village of Pemberton will be particularly important, since the lands could become part of Pemberton if the Village’s boundary expansion proposal is successful.

Transit deal approved

The SLRD board approved the six-month annual operating agreement for the Pemberton Valley Transit System from Oct. 1, 2009, to March 31, 2010, subject to confirmation from the Village of Pemberton and Lil’wat Nation that they will continue in the existing service partnership, while Sturdy expressed a need to complete the long-awaited service review for the area.

“We need to put some pressure on B.C. Transit to make this thing happen,” Sturdy said, noting that the review has been on the table for about 2½ years, and saying there are “some serious service issues” that need to be addressed.

Peter DeJong, SLRD research and policy analyst, said staff recently received confirmation that resources will be directed to finish the review, eventually leading to a discussion among all the funding partners “to move forward with a better system.”

Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed noted that Whistler’s council is eager to see performance criteria included in the annual operating agreements, to create an incentive to provide more precise schedules.

A Nov. 24 letter from B.C. Transit states that the enhanced transit service planned for February 2010 won’t have a budgetary impact for the SLRD, because the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee will be responsible for the increased service hours and the SLRD’s costs and revenue will be fixed for February.

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