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Generation next?

In this week’s Mountain News there is a report from Vail, where town officials have passed a bylaw requiring new commercial developments in the town core to provide housing for 20 per cent of the new jobs they create.
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In this week’s Mountain News there is a report from Vail, where town officials have passed a bylaw requiring new commercial developments in the town core to provide housing for 20 per cent of the new jobs they create. Unfortunately, or fortunately if you are the developer, the new law doesn’t apply to the more than $1 billion worth of redevelopment underway in Vail, and which is expected to add 1,500 permanent jobs.

Despite this massive exception to the law, not all are happy. A representative of the Vail Board of Realtors said the formula used to determine housing requirements is “very, very unfair”, because the formula dictates that real estate offices create more jobs than some other kinds of businesses.

This is the context in which Vail is striving to meet its (modest) goal of having 30 per cent of employees live in town.

Whistler, which has endured its own housing battles, can sit back and reflect smugly in the fact that, according to the most recent municipal statistics, 79 per cent of employees live in town. Whistler’s goal is to have 75 per cent of employees housed in town.

And there is some justification for smugness, or at least thanks are due to those many people — politicians, bureaucrats, business people and community-minded individuals — who had the guts and determination to make affordable resident housing a priority and a reality in Whistler.

But is there ever enough? That’s a question proponents and opponents of affordable housing ask. It’s a question on the minds of the 500-odd people approved for mortgages and registered on the Whistler Housing Authority wait list. And it’s a question asked by exasperated politicians, relieved that the Nita Lake housing project has finally been occupied, impatient to get the Rainbow project approved, and adamant that beyond a couple of other projects already OK’d and the athletes’ village there is nothing else coming down the pipe.

Affordable housing for seasonal employees is another issue altogether, and the political mood of the moment is that it’s not a problem Whistler can build its way out of. Solutions should come from creative ways to use existing buildings.

There isn’t any active pursuit of additional housing projects at the moment because there isn’t any appetite to build more housing; in fact, the market may be saturated with all that is coming. And it is going to take some time to get our heads around all the other building that will be going on over the next three summers. So if we can just get through these next three years, the thinking goes, our housing situation will be in good shape by the summer of 2010.

Assuming the population dynamic and our housing needs in 2010 will be the same as they are today.

How much can things change in three years time? Within Whistler there will be the Olympic facilities and perhaps a new golf course in the Callaghan. Those things will add a few jobs and create a little more diversity of activities.

But the real change within Whistler is who is going to be here in three or four years time. Not everyone on the housing wait list is going to wait another three years for the opportunity to purchase a home. Not when there are opportunities to get into the market in Squamish and not when mountain resorts across the province are offering cheaper alternatives.

There’s also a generation of Whistler business owners who may cash out or downsize during the next three years. Some people in their 50s and 60s, who have been running their own restaurants and shops for years, are going to decide it’s time to slow down, and they may get more for their businesses before 2010 than after.

And there could be a generation of managers at municipal hall, Tourism Whistler and Whistler-Blackcomb who make the same sort of decision after 2010. They will have been part of the buildup to one of the biggest shows on earth, have gone through unique experiences and made international contacts. It will be hard for some of them to go back to the old routine, particularly after coming down from the fevered rush to get ready for 2010 and into what may be a slower time. Why not take those new skills and contacts and apply them to specific projects? For some, stepping into the world of consultancy work may seem a lot more interesting than going back to the same old desk.

If any of these groups leave Whistler in any numbers between now and 2010 the dynamics of the community will have been changed. No doubt good, new, younger people with new ideas can be found to take their place. But few of this new generation of managers, business owners and permanent employees are likely to be able to step right into the Whistler housing market, a step that provides some assurance of commitment to the community.

Many of those expected to leave own homes that will be sold at market rates, which means the new owners of those homes are unlikely to be the next generation of managers or storeowners.

Whistler’s total workforce in 2005-06 was estimated at 13,700. An admirable 79 per cent, or 10,800 of those 13,700, lived in Whistler but only 38 per cent (4,110) lived in resident-restricted housing. Those last figures will increase with the Rainbow development, the athletes’ village and a few other projects expected by 2010.

But will it be enough for the next generation of Whistlerites? Are we planning for the next generation of community leaders?