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New residential-commercial building approved for downtown Squamish

The Amaji 2 development will bring 38 residential units to the area
Rendering from District of Squamish report

A seven-storey mixed-use building with 38 residential units is destined for downtown.

On Nov. 17, council voted unanimously in favour of green-lighting a development permit build the project on 38044 Second Avenue, which is a commercial C-4 zone,

The permit will give Kainos Development by Design Ltd. permission to construct the facility, known as the Amaji 2, with two variances, among other things.

This will be the second Amaji building constructed in the area. The first one, by the same developer, was built on 38033 Second Avenue.

The first variance would allow the building to cut its rear setback from 3.5 metres to 1.5. The second would remove the need for a required loading bay space.

There will be 342 square metres of commercial space on the ground floor.

Concerning parking, there will be space for one vehicle per residential unit, as it will have a two-storey parking garage with 40 parking stalls — 38 residential and two commercial.

Thirteen of the residential stalls will have electric vehicle charging stations.

Mayor Karen Elliott said she was generally supportive of the development but said there needs to be broader high-level changes to C-4 zoning, which she characterized as a challenge for the municipality.

"I think every [development permit] we see, we're losing something that we want," said Elliott.

"I also don't think it's incentivizing the second-floor commercial, and we always lose that because of parking. And so, I think from a policy perspective, we have to look at how we incent the type of office commercial we want downtown because it's not fitting into the C-4 zone. No one's building it. No one can seem to make it work."

She said it's important to match people to workspaces in the downtown, echoing a comment from Coun. Chris Pettingill.

Elliott added that she believes that the town is losing out on employment space.

If people can't work downtown, they'll be forced to commute elsewhere for their jobs, she said.

Coun. Eric Andersen also supported the permit, but said that generally speaking, he had some concerns about a lack of colour coming forward in development proposals.

Guidelines ask downtown buildings to use dark or neutral colours like grand, beige, brown and green olive, among others, he said.

"I believe we do need to review this particular guideline," said Andersen.

"I'm concerned about the monotony in the colour palettes that we're seeing in downtown."

***Correction, Dec. 31, 9:11 a.m. — A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the building as the Amaji. In fact, the building is called the Amaji 2. 

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