District of Squamish

Eric Andersen

1.1) Do you support the creation of TDM through smart growth planning and changes to infrastructure such as increasing sidewalks and bike paths and identifying new park & ride areas? If yes, what specific outcomes do you support? If no, why not?

Yes, I support TDM as needing serious attention. Serious, but practical and well-targeted attention. Both employers and residential development proponents should be targeted in TDM strategy awareness initiatives. For large scale housing developments, TDM must be explicitly addressed in neighbourhood plans. We must not overlook jobs-to-housing ratio balance in our smart growth planning, at both community and regional levels.

1.2) Do you support marketing tools like carpooling and school bike plans and promoting events such as bike to work week and car-free days in the town centre? If yes, what specific tools do you support? If no, why not?

Yes, I am supportive of all of marketing tools like carpooling and school bike plans and promotional events. “Car-free days in the town centre” is not so applicable to communities in our region; yet events in similar spirit should be supported.

2.1) Do you ride local or regional buses on a regular basis (public transit or private carriers)? If not, what would be required for you to start taking the bus? (For example: better schedule, different routes, lower cost? Or other?)

I have been a regular user of the (no longer operating) early morning Greyhound service to Downtown Vancouver. The early morning schedule was critical to my use of this bus service. The cost must be competitive with car use. (Greyhound is only marginally competitive with car today, since 2010 Olympics price-hikes.) Within Squamish I prefer to cycle or walk.

2.2) Do you support the development of an inter-regional transit plan that would integrate services in communities from Metro Vancouver and the Squamish Lillooet Regional District (from West Vancouver to Mount Currie)?

Yes!

2.3) What would a successful inter-regional plan look like to you?

A successful inter-regional plan would be based on a durable collaboration platform or entity, encompassing Pemberton, Whistler, Squamish and East Howe Sound (SLRD). For the routing to/ from the Lower Mainland, I would wish to see a cooperation agreement between the latter regional entity and TransLink.

3.1) How would you encourage the use of more efficient standards and greener technology for new and retrofitted industries in your community?

First, I believe many industries in our region are doing a good job today. I would wish to encourage expanded use of water and rail transport, instead of trucking. (For example, for wastes and bulk materials transported out of the region.) This requires local government planning attention, to ensure that water and rail transport are well-considered and obstacles (including neglect) hindering their use are avoided.

4.1) How will you ensure that all new residential and commercial development occurs in existing developed areas, thereby increasing walkability and proximity to shops and services?

We can strengthen, and apply more regularly, smart growth planning “checklists” in evaluating development proposals.

4.2) What policies do you think will be most effective at reducing our community’s impact on air quality?

Strategic attention to jobs-to-housing ratio balance is very important. In other words, we must address local economic development alongside residential growth pressures.

5.1) The Province of BC is considering a province-wide ban on the use of cosmetic pesticides. Regardless of the outcome, would you support a local bylaw banning pesticide use in your community?

I would sooner support partnerships with local environmental NGOs to raise awareness of harmful pesticide use. The category of pesticide user which should be targeted being residences (not industry), educational efforts rather than regulation should be favoured as more effective.

Shane Bennett

My approach is to deal with the cause of the problem

If we did a rapid transition to water power IE: burning water instead
of fossil fuels most if not all of your issues would be dealt with,
also unlike a battery solution you do not have to re tool the auto
industry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsamyySOM4g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUu7q_o_saE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjqkHhWUKOU&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ2QciCN5Ks&feature=related

My policy of a purchase freeze on all municipal internal combustion
engines unless they run on water would facilitate this transition

Mike Jenson

I definitely would support TDM for Squamish. We need a strategy to reduce the number of vehicles on the road as we are becoming a bedroom community and many of our residents commute to Vancouver and Whistler for employment.
With respect to an inter-regional transit system, partnerships between public transit authorities and private carriers may prove successful. Success would be measured in ridership numbers and reasonable funding required.
In Squamish, we cherish our air quality, as our brand is The Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada.

Peter Kent

I fully support the creation of more sidewalks and bike paths for greater use by cyclists, thereby reducing the number of vehicles on the road. We live in such a beautiful green space with so many devoted cyclists, that every effort should be made to encourage and foster their uses and experience and bring new riders into the fold. The health benefits are endless.

I support car pooling and believe we should have more parking space set aside to promote it, especially in Squamish’s current transportation situation, where so many are having to make the trip into Vancouver for work. Less cars, less emissions, less traffic on the Highway. The bike-to-work concept is a great one and one that I would personally welcome, being an avid mountain bike rider myself. And if more kids biked to school, we would be able to combat the childhood obesity epidemic we are currently seeing, which is a tragedy.

I do not ride the local busses myself, as the father of 2 year old twin boys it is a pretty daunting concept at the moment! But I believe we need to address the schedules, ridership and fees all together, to get our system back into something that functions for all of us in the Corridor. It is a real necessity.

All of our communities – in the Corridor and beyond – need to be interconnected and linked to Vancouvers Translink system. It makes perfect, common sense and should have been done long ago.

2.3) What would a successful inter-regional plan look like to you?

My plan would see better local bus service within Squamish, using smaller, less expensive and less polluting busses. This would also bring down our overhead expenses, which at this time are bleeding red ink. I would like to see a shuttle that extends from Squamish to Park Royal center where it would link up with the Translink system. For Lillooet and Mt Currie, these communities should also have a shuttle connecting them into the web with at least 2 regular trips each day, at reasonable cost. I also believe that selling advertising and new Media on our busses might help defray some of our operating costs.

3.1) How would you encourage the use of more efficient standards and greener technology for new and retrofitted industries in your community?

We don’t have any more real “heavy industry” in Squamish, but as far as the pollutants we do have, IE diesel engines, asphalt plants etc, they should all conform to one clean air policy. I also believe we should implement Air Care in the Squamish region.

4.1) How will you ensure that all new residential and commercial development occurs in existing developed areas, thereby increasing walkability and proximity to shops and services?

To promote development in the areas already slated as either industrial or residential, and fortify our core instead of allowing our town to scatter itself, I believe that developers should be encouraged with tax breaks and infrastructure assistance to draw them to the areas that are already undergoing development and keep the focus there. Many towns, IE: Nanaimo allowed development to spread along the highways in the early 80′s, thereby pulling the life out of the downtown core and taking the cohesion out of the city. We need to assist developers in finding locations that are advantageous to us all and give them solid reasons for using these sites

4.2) What policies do you think will be most effective at reducing our community’s impact on air quality?

I believe we need to introduce, with ICBC’s assistance, the Air Care standarrds in the Corridor, ths eliminating some of the heavy vehicle pollutants. Industrial should conform to the Federal standards.

5.1) The Province of BC is considering a province-wide ban on the use of cosmetic pesticides. Regardless of the outcome, would you support a local bylaw banning pesticide use in your community?

I completely support the ban on pesticides of whatever type. For too long we have polluted ourselves, our air and our water with them. With our proximity to the ocean and our rainfall, these agents leech into the Sound, either killing or genetically mutating fish and the wildlife that feeds upon it. These agents also cause various cancers and health risks in humans and are extremely dangerous to our children. Whatever happened to the old flyswatter to kill flies or a handful of salt to take care of garden slugs? Instead of reaching for the “plastic bottle” think more traditional, environmental and health conscious.

Auli Parviainen

Yes, I believe we are at a critical juncture and must adopt policies to incentivizeand encourage alternatives to vehicles on the roads. Having safe and accessiblesidewalk for walking traffic, in particular in neighbourhoods with proximity tocommercial zone is important. Same applies to bike lanes albeit the distancescan now be longer to commercial cores. Itʼs important to apply good design andplanning principles to ensure that you create corridors for walking and bikingtraffic and also undertake traffic calming measures. Considerations for services,playground areas etc should matter greatly in this process.Our transit options are now non-existent. We need to invest into transitinfrastructure and ensure a number of options are available at a steady frequencyfor both regional and local transit. We should consider the sizes of vehicles toincrease service frequency along with seeking public input to appropriate routingfor maximum usage convenience. Free and safe parking areas must be availableat conveniently located park and ride spots along with ensuring local transit hubis available at that location.This conversation must start from identifying the needs of the community, nothow they presently use transit but rather how they would use it if it was availableand convenient.

I absolutely think promotion and advertising for transit is important. Itʼs like anyother service and needs to have an appropriate marketing campaign attached.Why not make it cool to use transit? The opportunities are endless and so arepartnerships with bike manufacturers, healthy community grants etc. As forspecific events I am an event producer so I know the value of well-planned,branded and executed events and campaigns and believe they can be valuablepublic awareness raising events. As to what specifically will work, I am sure thereare plenty of people out there with contributions to make so I will leave with thepeople who work on this regularly. I will commit to providing a fertile ground andsupport for the concepts. Fiscally responsible planning and understanding whatReturn on Investment could be are essential. You need to demonstrate long-termvalue for investment (this does not mean instant results).

I donʼt currently use the bus system very often, mostly because I work out of myhome and then attend meetings in the Sea to Sky Corridor and Vancouver. Forme it would be a challenge to use public transit given the irregularity of myschedule but I would use local bus service for outings if it was convenient andoffered frequent enough service. Routing is critical locally and understandingtraffic patterns and this can only be discovered by proper analysis and publicconsultation. I would also use the regional bus system to access Whistler andperhaps Vancouver periodically too. Cost is not that much of an issue as Irecognize how expensive it is to use my vehicle. The cost of transit needs to beinexpensive enough that it provides an incentive not to use a vehicle.

Yes! This is a must. A significant part of our community commutes to Whistlerand Vancouver and many rely completely on some type of transit system. I wouldstrongly advocate with the regional district, Whistler, Pemberton and MetroVancouver to look at possibilities. Translink already has a connection to LionsBay, surely it cannot be that difficult to extend that service. Northbound transitseems a challenge but I feel we must build our relationship with the communitiesin the corridor to come up with a successful and efficient transit system. Thiscould become a regional transit authority, modeled after some of the successfulski resort transit options around the globe. There are a number of successfulpublic/private partnership samples to look at, albeit ultimately we need to modeland customize a system that fits our needs.

2.3) What would a successful inter-regional plan look like to you?

I can only comment from my view and feel quite strongly that this needs publicinput from people that use it or desire to do so. For me a successful plan wouldlook at the commuter patterns and also consider the needs of the elderly andother vulnerable segments to ensure access to services was available regionally.The scheduling needs to reflect the schedules of working people, in particular theshift workers. Smaller vehicles and more frequency are the key to success.

3.1) How would you encourage the use of more efficient standards and greener technology for new and retrofitted industries in your community?

We need to collaborate with our industry partners to help them achieve our goalsas a community. We can create regulations but if those are not enforced orcannot be enforced they will be meaningless. I am firm believer in creating a winwinsituation for everyone, meaning that we collaborate via tax incentives to allowfor betterment of our environment. Quite frankly, Squamish had relatively little ofits past industrial base so this would be more applicable to new operations. Wecan issue regulations that ensure our standards are being met but most of all, weneed to ensure that we assist industry rather than enforce after the fact.

4.1) How will you ensure that all new residential and commercial development occurs in existing developed areas, thereby increasing walkability and proximity to shops and services?

These relate to land use designation issues and applying them consistently. Wemust ensure the availability of industrially zoned landmass and not interfere withthat by injecting light commercial usage. I do believe that there are someexcellent samples of mixed use globally, however we must be careful not to mixheavy industry (noise, dust etc) with residential as it doesn’t work. We candesignate zones around commercial areas as well as ensure that heavy industrialcore is kept away from commercial and residential zones.

4.2) What policies do you think will be most effective at reducing our community’s impact on air quality?

Number 1 priority by far is to allow people to live and work in their owncommunity so they have not much need to commute. We also need to havepublic transit and car pools to reduce SOVs on our roads. We must adapt andlead the charge on sustainable building practices to reduce our energyconsumption. Industrial operations must be managed to carefully set guidelinesfor reduced emissions while ensuring that businesses still find a friendlyenvironment to operate in. We can also explore the possibility of incentives forreduced energy and water consumption, albeit those might be unrealistic atpresent time, Some of this is of course provincial and federal jurisdictiondepending on land use area. In those situations, I would strongly lobby for ourlocal community

5.1) The Province of BC is considering a province-wide ban on the use of cosmetic pesticides. Regardless of the outcome, would you support a local bylaw banning pesticide use in your community?

am in favour of a ban of cosmetic pesticides. I believe we must stop the cycleand we might as well start here. This has to be combined with a significant PRcampaign however to shift the thinking on what is aesthetically pleasing. You didnot ask about backyard fires?

Ted Prior

I was the present of the Squamish Trail society for 8 years our mandate was to connect the community with linkage trails . I very much 1.1 as for 1.2 The new Quote of trails is [Be Bright at Night ] buses are big to me less car,s on the road .I think the District should put community signage on there vehicles with some of your massages.

See above.

I do not ride the buses much it seem like I am all ways going to pic up Kids they use the bus when they can but it shuts down early and is not available on week ends

Transit is an amenity that the community needs to build on, it is like the pool the ice arena , the better it is the more riders will use it .

2.3) What would a successful inter-regional plan look like to you?

Pemberton ,Whistler ,Squamish ,Vancouver to work for the commuter and a local system that encourages riders with a doable schedule

3.1) How would you encourage the use of more efficient standards and greener technology for new and retrofitted industries in your community?

I would listen to people an get my self more informed to help bring in police that improvement to our community

As groups like the Can group ,the value add group and smart grouth polices come to council I would proud to help make polices like these move forward

4.1) How will you ensure that all new residential and commercial development occurs in existing developed areas, thereby increasing walkability and proximity to shops and services?

These relate to land use designation issues and applying them consistently. Wemust ensure the availability of industrially zoned landmass and not interfere withthat by injecting light commercial usage. I do believe that there are someexcellent samples of mixed use globally, however we must be careful not to mixheavy industry (noise, dust etc) with residential as it doesnʼt work. We candesignate zones around commercial areas as well as ensure that heavy industrialcore is kept away from commercial and residential zones.

4.2) What policies do you think will be most effective at reducing our community’s impact on air quality?

Smart growth.

5.1) The Province of BC is considering a province-wide ban on the use of cosmetic pesticides. Regardless of the outcome, would you support a local bylaw banning pesticide use in your community?

I would strongly support banning pesticides use

Bryan Raiser

Yes I have always supported these infrastructure improvements for obvious reasons. Financial and health (body and planet)

I like the idea of education in any form. The bike to work week was ok, but I feel that putting that money towards safer bike routes would be better money spent.

No, bike is my main transportation. Better schedule (online account to where bus is and how wlong before at station would be the #1 thing to get me on a bus)

Need more information on the costs, and bennifits.

2.3) What would a successful inter-regional plan look like to you?

One that works

3.1) How would you encourage the use of more efficient standards and greener technology for new and retrofitted industries in your community?

Offer financial incentives.

4.1) How will you ensure that all new residential and commercial development occurs in existing developed areas, thereby increasing walkability and proximity to shops and services?

Thankfully our staff is very aware of Smart Growth on the Ground. Advocating for this is key.

4.2) What policies do you think will be most effective at reducing our community’s impact on air quality?

See above.

5.1) The Province of BC is considering a province-wide ban on the use of cosmetic pesticides. Regardless of the outcome, would you support a local bylaw banning pesticide use in your community?

Yes.

Ron Sander

I support TDM as a key part of the municipal planning process. TDM should be used to plan enhancements to existing transportation choices as well as determining necessary development amenity requirements.

I support using marketing tools that are part of an approved municipal budget to advertise such events.

I do not use the regional bus service, nor is it likely that I would. This is because I require a vehicle and both flexibility and spontaneous access to my vehicle during the day at work. However members of my family do use regional and local transit.

I support the consideration of cost effective inter-regional transit. I cannot commit to implementing something I do not have specific details and funding for.

2.3) What would a successful inter-regional plan look like to you?

A successful inter-regional plan would provide desired service levels throughout the corridor, at costs the communities could financially afford. This would include bus service, handi-dart services and or consideration of formalized partnerships with existing commercial carriers.

3.1) How would you encourage the use of more efficient standards and greener technology for new and retrofitted industries in your community?

Each project, development or retrofit which falls under the consideration of municipal approval should be scrutinized by both staff and Council to ensure it meets or exceeds the community’s environmental goals and to create a process of continuous improvement.

4.1) How will you ensure that all new residential and commercial development occurs in existing developed areas, thereby increasing walkability and proximity to shops and services?

This question is closely tied to the TDM consideration of the development process. The OCP, TDM and each development consideration should work towards an integrated overall plan to improve walk ability, wheel chair access, and cycling routes.

4.2) What policies do you think will be most effective at reducing our community’s impact on air quality?

Setting a community Environment goal which is measurable and utilizes a philosophy of “continuous improvement” would then guide Council, staff and the Community towards a commitment and legacy of ongoing improvement.

5.1) The Province of BC is considering a province-wide ban on the use of cosmetic pesticides. Regardless of the outcome, would you support a local bylaw banning pesticide use in your community?

Yes I would support a ban on cosmetic pesticides.

Rob Weys

I do support smart growth planning and changes to infrstructure. Especially increased transit.
By either expanding BC transit service or joining Translink

I do support carpooling, school bike plnas, bike to work week, and a car free day in downtown squamish would be a good program.

I do not ride local or regional buses. I live close to amenities, school, and work. I walk and bike when I can.
I have three small children and drive our one family car when needed.
Better routes and schedules would be key for me to use more.
The cost is fair.

Yes, I do support an inter-regional transit plan.

2.3) What would a successful inter-regional plan look like to you?

A successful inter-regional plan would connect up with the translink system in Lions Bay and the Bc Transit system in Whistler and beyond.

3.1) How would you encourage the use of more efficient standards and greener technology for new and retrofitted industries in your community?

By developing incentives and programs, that promote industry to change.

4.1) How will you ensure that all new residential and commercial development occurs in existing developed areas, thereby increasing walkability and proximity to shops and services?

By ensuring zonning and panning, is developed to make this a possible.

4.2) What policies do you think will be most effective at reducing our community’s impact on air quality?

Increased regional transit service throughout the sea to sky corridor.

5.1) The Province of BC is considering a province-wide ban on the use of cosmetic pesticides. Regardless of the outcome, would you support a local bylaw banning pesticide use in your community?

Yes i support the a local by- law banning pesticide use in my community.