Group fights gondola project in Squamish
Posted October 2, 2012 2:55 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – It looks like the proposed sight-seeing gondola at Stawamus Chief Provincial Park has cleared its final hurdle. The province announced last week it plans to issue a park-use permit for the project.
But a group that wants to stop the Gondola from being built is still fighting, hoping for a favourable ruling from the BC Ombudsman.
On August 9th, Friends of the Squamish Chief filed a complaint claiming the approval process allowing boundary changes in the park was not fair.
“From our understanding of what the park-boundary adjustment guidelines set out, they haven’t been followed,” says the group‘s Theresa Negreiff.
The boundary adjustment would allow the company behind the gondola to build on a strip of land, just over two hectares that had previously been protected from development.
FOSC wants the Ombudsman to order the province to re-do the boundary-adjustment process, including public meetings in Vancouver, North Vancouver, and Squamish.
The group is concerned that the province has set a bad precedent when it comes to development in BC parks.
“I think this is going to be the way development is going to proceed, where it’s managed by the developer, where there’s not transparency.” says Negreiff. “The application, none of the paperwork, none of the environmental assessment was available to the public.”
The gondola would not take people to the top of the Chief. Instead, it would rise about 850 metres, taking people from the base of the mountain to a forested ridge on a nearby mountain.
The company behind the project says the gondola will create jobs and expand tourism in the region.
