There are two pretty interesting things going on here. Firstly, if this goes through, it's going to force a bunch of people in Vancouver to reconcile some of their values in a way that's going to be pretty uncomfortable for them. Well to do urban-dwelling Vancouverites often hold the value publicly that reconciliation with First Nations and their right to self determination is very important, but they also really really don't like the idea of any developments changing the character of their neighborhood, despite the housing crisis we've been in for years.
Secondly, since the Squamish Nation doesn't need to follow a bunch of the typical city rules, they can do away with things like required parking spaces, and build more pedestrian space between towers with smaller footprints, and be open that they don't expect people living here will own cars. If the project and neighbourhood are successful, it could prove to be a pretty interesting counter point to the broadly successful development policies of the city that seem at risk of keeping up with the densification of the region.
