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2020 Development Corp. crunching numbers

Public response to draft master plan for legacy village generally positive

By the time the last road is paved, the lights turn on, and the toilets flush the new Olympic legacy village could cost $180 million.

"… It could very well approach the $180 million range," said Mike Vance, general manager of community initiatives for the Resort Municipality of Whistler.

The cost was arrived at recently when the Whistler 2020 Development Corporation, which is responsible for making the 2010 Olympic Athletes Village, an athletes centre, and the post-Games legacy village a reality, crunched the numbers.

This week Vance said an engineering company would be hired and as soon as possible offer the development corporation a more concrete idea of how much it would cost to clear the site and get it ready for construction. A business plan is also in the works so that the future of the site can be more accurately determined.

"The highest priority right now is to refine all of these questions and answer all of these questions," said Vance. "The next focus is on the details of the costing and the site servicing."

This may impact what the legacy village looks like as it has become clear to the 2020 Corporation that with current site and construction costs it is very unlikely that resident housing can be completed at the $175/square foot bench mark set for employee housing in the resort. A more realistic cost is $240/square foot.

"We may make a decision to tighten the plan up, for example to reduce clearing and site servicing," said Vance, adding that might mean making housing denser in the commercial core.

It may ultimately affect how much of the village is temporary or permanent.

Vance said every option is being looked at as the 2020 Corporation moves toward making the resident legacy housing a reality. That includes offering the homes at a variety of prices, and re-visiting whether or not some of the land not being developed at this stage could be sold at market value to allow resident housing to be sold at an affordable price.

Under the terms and conditions outlined by the government for the handover of the legacy lands to Whistler it must be used for resident restricted housing. But, said Vance, there is a possibility the government might be asked to relax this condition so that some land may be sold at market prices to subsidize resident housing, thereby making it affordable.

"But we haven’t gotten into this fully yet because until we know what the costs are we don’t know what kind of subsidies we might need," said Vance.

Despite the cost conundrum facing the 2020 Corporation, stakeholders are determined that there will be a resident housing legacy at the Lower Cheakamus site at the south end of Whistler.

"We are actually starting to be optimistic that we can do something and leave a permanent legacy on the ground without going into debt, which we promised," said councillor and corporation board member Ken Melamed at an open house on the athletes village last week.

"Personally I see resident housing as one of our key pieces of infrastructure to make the resort work," Melamed added. "I don’t have a problem ‘subsidizing’ as long as it is not a gift into somebody’s pocket. But if we have to contribute to make it a reality then offer the product for sale to owners under a restricted covenant policy, then I think that is a positive step."

Steve Matheson, the Vancouver Organizing Committee’s vice-president of venue development, also wants to see a legacy.

"We think there is a great opportunity to produce legacy housing and we are going to spend a lot of our efforts working with the 2020 Corp. and council to see if we can make this happen," he said.

VANOC is contributing $13 to $14 million to the athletes centre and $26 million to the village.

Another $6.5 million is earmarked for First Nations housing at the site. That may mean First Nations rent out housing in the village or they are allowed to remove temporary housing to a site of their choice.

Discussions are also underway with First Nations about possible partnerships with them for the development of the commercial core. The municipality is not allowed to undertake that type of activity on the land.

"It is still unclear how that will be worked out," said Melamed. "But this is one of the areas where there is a potential partnership with First Nations because they have land that is unencumbered."

Of the whole area municipal staff estimate roughly 135 acres is developable, sitting just north of the landfill and on the south side of the existing road up to Loggers Lake. Another portion of land south of the landfill could be developed at a later date but for now the focus remains on the northern section.

A core commercial area will most likely sit just north of the existing landfill, which will turn into playing fields/green space in time for the Games.

The core most likely will include a convenience store, neighbourhood pub and small bistro – enough to service the nearby residents but not enough to take away from other commercial areas in Whistler.

The plan is that residents living in the Lower Cheakamus will be able to walk to the core via trails without having to cross any roads. The main road to the neighbourhood will be a ring road surrounding the subdivision with smaller access roads leading into clusters of housing.

The athletes village will need to accommodate up to 3,000 athletes and officials in 478 units. The master plan envisions 71 single family homes, 71 duplex, 71 four-bedroom townhouses, 71 three-bedroom townhomes, 142 two-bedroom townhomes, and 47- one-bedroom/studio apartments. After the Games this would become the legacy village.

It has yet to be determined how much each one of these options would cost.

Many of those at the open house, where designers and planners revealed the first draft master plan of the concept, were excited by what they saw.

"I think it is fantastic, really fantastic, really exciting," said Whistler resident Dave Halliwell. "When you look at the cost of real estate in Whistler the opportunity for us to build a whole bunch of affordable housing is really incredible."

But not everyone at the event was happy with the plan to build a new permanent community at the site.

"I am absolutely, totally opposed," said Peter Alder who has worked in the ski industry for over 40 years and consulted at the Calgary Olympics.

"I mean, who is going to pay for this first of all, and we don’t need a thing like this so far away from other people. They should have temporary accommodation and then maybe infrastructure in there so that maybe in 50 years from now, when my grandchildren get old, they can live down there at the dump."