A surf park is coming to B.C.

A surf park is coming to B.C. — and it's making waves with the locals

Plans for the area also include residences and hotel accommodations

Lynne Cook has lived in the small seaside community of Britannia Beach, 50 kilometres north of Vancouver, for 41 years.

“A lot has changed in this community,” Cook said.

She’s part of the Britannia Beach Community Association and has watched as many development proposals have come and go for an area near Minaty Bay.

Now, that area will be home to a new man-made surf park, along with residential and commercial buildings with public access to the bay.

“This needs to be a park for everyone to enjoy this beautiful spot,” Cooke said.

The six-acre South Britannia Surf park will be set on a large gravel lot beside Highway 99.

It's being built by Spanish company Wavegarden — which has worked on 12 other surf parks worldwide.

“I think as a neighbour, we're very lucky to have it right in our own backyard,” Cook said. “It’s pretty exciting news that this is finally going to get done and we all look forward to it.”

Renderings of the plans, released by Tiger Bay Development, show a massive transformation for the area.

The plan also includes 190 hotel rooms and 1,050 new homes — including 150 affordable units — to be built after the surf park's completion.

Tony Petricevic, head of development at Tiger Bay, said they’ve received support for the surf park from locals and the sporting community.

“You've got every other outdoor sport you can imagine, and the only one which you can't really do is surfing,” Petricevic said.

He added that the pool will be massive, hosting dozens of surfers on the intermediate- to expert-level waves at a time.

Long-time resident Janice Brown says she's concerned about increased vehicle congestion in the region.

“It's great for Britannia Beach, but the bottom line is that the traffic is terrible for everybody,” Brown said.

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She says she doesn't travel outside Squamish during the summer weekends to avoid being stuck in a highway shutdown. Serious collisions have closed Highway 99 in January, February, March and June this year.

“We need an alternate route to Squamish and to the Sea-to-Sky corridor that people can come from and leave from,” Brown said.

Petricevic said he doesn't think the project will add much more traffic to the highway.

“It’s not a water park,” Petricevic said. “There's only 100 people in the pool at one time.”

University of British Columbia associate professor Tom Davidoff called the surf park an ambitious project.

“I don't know how profitable it will be," he said. "People love surfing, maybe there's enough surfers in Vancouver to pay for what I would imagine is a very expensive surf park to create."

Construction for the surf park, which will be open year-round, is expected to begin in 2027, with completion set for 2029.

Tourism Squamish says outdoor recreation is a big driver for the local economy.

“Squamish welcomed two million visitors in 2024; there was $408 million in visitor spending that supported thousands of jobs and contributed $208 million to the provincial GDP,” said Nikki Johnston with Tourism Squamish.

The Ministry of Tourism said outdoor recreation is also a major growing sector, with participation contributing $4.8 billion annually to B.C.’s economy.

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Johnston said they hope a new attraction like this will also help drive overnight visitation and create ‘spin-off’ benefits to the local economy, restaurants, and retail shops.

She added that transportation, infrastructure, and housing to support the workforce is also top of mind with a project this size.

“Making sure that we're able to protect the Sea to Sky quality of life as we have it that makes it such a desirable place to both live and visit,” Johnston said.

Alanna Kelly is a CBC News journalist based in Squamish, B.C., covering the Sea-to-Sky region, including Whistler, Pemberton and the Sunshine Coast. You can email story ideas to alanna.kelly@cbc.ca.