Big building lots exemplify Squamish's fun 'n' Games edge a bedroom-community edge
 
Michael Sasges
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, August 20, 2005

There are any number of reasons, dear reader, you might want to know about the Thunderbird Creek building-lot development in Squamish.

If you are a younger metro Vancouver resident you might want to know that Thunderbird Creek is a single-family-home proposition you might be able to afford.

If you're an older resident, especially if you're the parent of adult children whose home-ownership aspirations have been braked by affordability concerns, you might want to know that Thunderbird Creek is a single-family-home proposition your son or daughter might be able to afford.

If you're an older resident, especially if you grew up in metro Vancouver, you might want to consider Thunderbird Creek as the latest symbol of Squamish's transition from its status, in our (collective) youth, as closest timbertown to Vancouver.

Younger or older, the articulation of the ideal West Coast family home and bedroom community from an experienced developer and builder, the 25-year-old Townline Group, and by younger professionals in the development business cannot hurt you.

Accordingly . . . .

The project

A Thunderbird Creek lot is not cheap, absolutely, but it is affordable, relatively speaking.

That's the opinion of the 28-year-old owner of Lot 11, who paid $260,000 for about 7,760 square feet of "dirt" -- his word -- enclosed by some very impressive dimensions. Width at the street is 60 feet. Depth is 130 feet on one side and 114 on the other.

Steven Fofonoff was the initial reason I accepted the invitation of Townline's media adviser, publicist Pamela Groberman, to visit Thunderbird Creek. In these parts, these days, a young, single man who has bought, if not a home, then the makings of a home (and a single-family-detached home, at that) is man-bites-dog news.

An adventure-sport enthusiast who found himself frequently visiting Squamish for its hiking, biking and skiing opportunities, Fofonoff was not looking for a home when he first visited the property that Townline would eventually call Thunderbird Creek.

He is a geotechnical engineer who first visited the site on behalf of his employer, a Burnaby engineering firm contracted by Townline to provide an informed opinion of the housing potential of the property.

"I was involved from Stage Zero, really," Fofonoff said. "When they [Townline] purchased the land we went in and did the site investigation, the ground conditions, and did the feasibility study, 'you can build this,' 'you can't build that,' 'if you want to want to do this, you have to do that,' "But his employer and, therefore, Fofonoff, provides site-use reports for lots of raw land around the Lower Mainland. What was it about this site that turned a Vancouver renter into a Squamish property-owner and putative homeowner?

"I found myself up in Squamish almost every weekend anyway, and not to say it was cheap, but it was affordable, especially if you're a single guy. You're completely excluded in Vancouver. There's nothing there."

About the relative affordability of Squamish and Thunderbird Creek, Townline's Kyle Shury comments: "When you do a comparison of Sea-to-Sky corridor properties, that is to say properties from Lions Bay to Whistler, we are definitely the best value going. You will get more for your money in a market that continues to appreciate.

And if you consider Squamish to be an extension of the North Shore market, much like Lions Bay and Furry Creek, the value [of Thunderbird Creek] increases dramatically."

Fofonoff did not grow up with metro Vancouver's house prices. He's a Saskatoon native ("I would have a whole house there already") and has lived in the Lower Mainland for only four years. How, then, is he so seemingly comfortable with his decision to spend a quarter-of-a-million dollars to buy the opportunity to spend, perhaps, that much again building a house?
Firstly, he believes the property will maintain its serviced-lot value before he begins to add value by building a house. "I felt comfortable enough if things didn't pan out I could at least turn around and get out of it."

Secondly, he believes that, once he is living full time in his new home, he can organize his workweek so he will not be commuting every day to his employer's Burnaby premises.

"I can conceive of spending two or three days in Vancouver and the rest up here, doing reports, doing stuff in the general vicinity. We've got stuff up in Whistler and Pemberton and Lillooet. So my hope is I can manage the work from this end rather than from Burnaby. It's not going to be a matter of commuting every day to an office."

The project's homes

This is the first new-home project I have visited in more than a year that is a building-lot offer only.

It is also the first whose design guidelines were drawn up by a developer, not government.
The Thunderbird Creek design guidelines cover 27 pages in Microsoft Word.

A project brochure says their purpose is the maintenance and protection of the "quality, integrity, investment value and sustainability" of the project and its properties. The actual design-guideline document is more direct: The purpose of the guidelines is "securing and protecting each homeowner's investment."

That is the intended consequence of the guidelines. It does not say much, I told Kyle Shury. What's the rest of the guideline story?

"Squamish historically has not had any guidelines, which has resulted in a mixed-bag approach to development over the years," he replied.

"You might have a few good examples of architecture, [but] right next door [to them] you might have a property to which the same consideration has not been given."The guidelines are not about telling people what to build. Rather, they're about encouraging homeowners to embrace the vision of the community.

"In the Lower Mainland there are several examples of projects where guidelines have been adopted and the results have been great. You get a wonderfully cohesive community."
Pre-project market research suggested guidelines would be well received by buyers, Kim Robertson says.

"Our initial market research and focus groups within the community indicated to us that people were looking for the bar to be raised -- and that this type of development would not only be supported, but embraced. With that in mind, we brought on a very skilled set of designers who worked hard to create guidelines that would inspire rather than limit."

Vancouver designer Cal Srigley took on the lead role of "architectural envisioning and concepts." Kim Perry "designed much of the open space and public realm." David Ellis translated their designs into guidelines. I've excerpted the results of a "very collaborative process of creative and talented minds" on page XX.

Two other points about the ideal residential development:

[1] The good developer anticipates and mitigates his or her footfall. "One of the key features of Thunderbird Creek is in its unique rainwater-management systems," Kim says.

"These rain gardens and associated systems are a pilot project for Squamish and we are extremely excited to be a part of what we hope to be the future standard for new developments.

"This becomes especially important in areas like Squamish which have sensitive fish habitats and a high level of storm water run-off.

"Meighan Creek, which runs through the base of our property, is one of the area's highest spawning coho habitats. So it's our duty to preserve and protect this valuable resource.

"It is our hopes that through the rain gardens we will be able to mimic pre-development conditions so as to minimize any impact on fish-bearing waterways."

[2] The good developer sponsors new-home projects that appeal to new-home buyers wherever they might be on the life, or family formation, cycle. If Thunderbird Creek right now is a single-family-home lot proposition, it will not be that forever, Kim expects.

"The over-all concept of Thunderbird Creek is an age-in-place community. So, for young to old, through a variety of housing types, there will always be a place to call home."

The project's location

Location makes Squamish a singular bedroom community in the Lower Mainland, Thunderbird Creek's champions say.

There is not a lot of there in Squamish. But what is there is located on the only road to the Winter Olympics.

At the head of Howe Sound, Squamish is located at the mouth of the Squamish river. It is founded on bottom and bench land -- relatively rare (for the area) buildable land -- and not on steep mountainsides, although it is famously enclosed by them.

Here's how Kyle Shury, Townline's development manager at Thunderbird Creek, persuaded me that its natural geography alone makes Squamish unique in the Lower Mainland:

"Squamish is a great place to raise a family. It has a small-town feel and it has proximity to Vancouver.

"[But] while other suburbs are busy being surrounded by other suburbs, Squamish has a real buffer -- parks and mountains and ocean.

"In one breath it is another commuter market. In another it is completely unique in that it is destined to remain intimate due to physical geography and limited development options."

Asked how Squamish's location along the Vancouver-Whistler corridor impacts its potential as a bedroom community, Shury's Townline colleague, Kim Robertson, had this to say: "One thing you didn't ask was, what brought Townline to Squamish? Was it the Olympics? The answer is yes and no.

"The Olympics was certainly a factor in the purchase. But mostly it was the infrastructure that needs to be built, primarily the upgrades to the Sea to Sky [Highway].

"We're looking beyond the Olympics for the true long-term legacy-value of the project, accessibility to world-class skiing and a world-class city in one of the most beautiful locations in B.C. That's attractive. That's a good investment."

It is not marketing hyperbole to suggest that in Squamish the opportunity to work and play close to home is real, and possibly better than in other bedroom communities in the Lower Mainland. It is a comparative advantage, endowed by geography.

For Squamish residents, downtown Vancouver is about one hour away and Whistler about a half-hour away by car, but with five provincial parks and inshore tidewater nearby, the "Great Outdoors" is within reach in minutes.

"The more time I spend in Squamish the more enamoured I become," reports Townline's Robertson, a downtown Vancouver resident.

"Squamish for me is about lifestyle and recreation. An hour from Vancouver the [home-buyer] choices are up the Valley, to Surrey or Maple Ridge, or up the Sea to Sky, to Squamish or Whistler.

"For me the choice would be simple. For the same price as a house in the Valley I can live in Squamish. I love to ski, I love to hike and, most of all, I love being surrounded by nature."

When I last saw Steven Fofonoff he was leaving a restaurant in Squamish for YVR and a flight to Scotland. Yes, he would be meeting a certain somebody over there. Yes, there would be no news update on his return. And yes he (and she) would appreciate it if I wouldn't share his telephone number or e-mail address with all those young women out there who've been wondering where all the young men with the determination and wherewithal to get on with life have gone.

They've gone to Squamish, if the Steven Fofonoff story is anything to go by.

Westcoast Homes editor Mike Sasges and his wife will make their next home in a Townline building under construction in downtown Vancouver.

Regards,

Gena Belanger
Eva Dolejsi
Cheryl Cornish

The Thunderbird Creek Sales Team

1 866 598 2473

E-mail: info@thunderbirdliving.com
Web: www.thunderbirdliving.com