Fewer than a dozen people showed up at municipal hall Saturday morning for an open house on the proposed down-zoning of Lot 3, Block C, District Lots 1754 and 3361. The description of the land alone was probably mind-numbing enough to keep most people away, but those who did show up to find out about the precedent-setting proposal left questioning whether the municipality had lost its mind.
The land in question is part of 111 acres between Alta Lake Road and Function Junction owned by John Zen. Lot 3 is environmentally sensitive wetland and has, since 1981, been zoned for a trailer park. The municipality wants to preserve the land in its present state, which is why it has proposed the down-zoning. Zen doesn’t want to develop a trailer park – he proposed 820 rental employee bed units and about 200 market bed units on other parts of his land, well removed from the wetlands – but feels he’s been forced to by the municipality.
Zen has owned the Alpha Creek lands, which in addition to Lot 3 includes three lots zoned RR1, for the past 22 years. The Zen family is in the construction business in the Lower Mainland, where the company philosophy has been to buy property and develop it in a way that will provide a continual, long-term return on investment, as opposed to building and selling. The company has never done a project in Whistler, although it knows a bit about development here through the Bosa family, who are relatives.
Over the years Zen has made several proposals for the Alpha Creek lands, including a suggestion that the new elementary school being built at Intrawest’s Spring Creek subdivision on the other side of the highway would fit better on the less-environmentally sensitive portion of his land. All of his proposals had been turned down, so last year he tried a new approach: going to the community to ask what it wanted.
After consulting with the Whistler Housing Authority a proposal was brought forward last fall. The plan involved a mix of 16 single family lots and 47 townhouses, and building 820 employee bed units in town houses and apartment complexes. In turn, 67 per cent of the property, including almost all of the wetlands, would be placed in a community foundation for environmental protection. The plan evolved, with the number of single family lots reduced and an offer to preserve 80 per cent of the land, including the wetlands and areas surrounding the several creeks that run through the property. Consultant Marianne Wade says the municipality was asked what sort of market/employee housing mix it would like to see but never responded.
The municipal planning department spent some time on the proposal but in the middle of that process, Councillor Kristi Wells said, there was a strong undercurrent within both council and municipal staff that the whole area should be protected.
"There were concerns about the views as people enter Whistler," Wells said.
After deciding last fall it didn’t want any development on the Alpha Creek site, Mayor Hugh O’Reilly wrote to Zen on Feb. 21 of this year offering several options: 1) Purchase his property for $5.7 million; 2) Rezoning a one-acre area of Lot 3 for market housing and reducing the purchase price of the remaining land accordingly; 3) In conjunction with 2) or separately, Intrawest was prepared to make the old Depner, site which is zoned for 47 employee apartment units, available at a price to be determined; 4) The owners of the BCR lands were prepared to provide "the value generated from up to four estate lots," which could be part of any deal involving 1) 2) or 3).
Incensed, Zen turned the offer down and declared he would exercise his existing development rights, which include homes up to 5,000 square feet on each of the three RR1 parcels and the trailer park on the wetlands.
On March 19 a building permit application for a trophy home on the first of the three RR1 parcels came before Whistler council. Councillor Ken Melamed, who was concerned about the development fragmenting the land’s ecosystem, asked staff if the municipality could deny such a permit application. The answer was no.
Last month, with Zen’s threat to develop the trailer park on the wetlands hanging overhead, council took the extraordinary step of recommending to staff Lot 3 be rezoned to a new Protected Area Network designation. The only permitted uses of the land would be for a conservation park, unsheltered eco-tourism uses or an unsheltered school providing instruction in eco-tourism or other nature-based programs.
No notice was given prior to the council meeting that the down-zoning recommendation would be on the agenda.
The decision to recommend down-zoning followed a precedent-setting case in North Vancouver last year. There the local government down-zoned a property for purposes of environmental preservation, and the Supreme Court upheld the zoning change.
Following the formal recommendation to staff, which passed by a 4-1 vote, Zen had seven days to submit a development permit or lose the development rights that go with the trailer park zoning. An application was submitted within the week. Whether Zen now has the right to develop the trailer park or the municipality has the right to down-zone may have to be determined in a court. Over the years the municipality has issued two previous development permits for the trailer park. Both have lapsed.
O’Reilly said Monday council’s motivation in turning down the Zen proposal was strictly to protect the environment. But he acknowledged there will be development on the site.
"He can develop his land as it’s zoned," O’Reilly said.
But if the down-zoning of the trailer park is successful, what happens to the approximately 80 bed units on the site?
"I don’t know. It’s a moot point in my opinion," O’Reilly said, before adding: "They’re not extinguished."
Saturday morning’s meeting was an opportunity for the public to learn about the municipality’s proposed down-zoning before the bylaw comes to council for first reading. The few people who did come out commented on the need for employee housing and some wondered how the municipality could turn down a project that included so much housing.
The municipality’s planning principles were also questioned. An elementary school was approved in the brand new Spring Creek subdivision – south of all existing neighbourhoods and accessed only by Highway 99, it was noted – but the municipality isn’t considering any other residential developments in the neighbourhood.
It was also made known that Zen had offered Millennium Place another $1.5 million if his redevelopment proposal was approved.
