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Size of Nita Lake Lodge is the issue: Lambert

Chateau du Lac owner doesn’t want to see community lose developer’s donations Sitting in his kitchen overlooking Nita Lake, Keith Lambert said he does not want Whistler to lose out on a million-dollar donation to health care.

Chateau du Lac owner doesn’t want to see community lose developer’s donations

Sitting in his kitchen overlooking Nita Lake, Keith Lambert said he does not want Whistler to lose out on a million-dollar donation to health care.

That was not his intention when he challenged the municipality for accepting the sizable donation as part of land deal in Creekside.

He is however concerned about the size of the Nita Lake Lodge development planned to go up on the south shores of one of Whistler’s smallest lakes.

"We don’t want to stop the whole development," he said late last week from his home, the Chateau du Lac.

"We don’t want the donations to fall by the wayside.

"(But) we think that without those benefits, council would never approve this."

Seeking the advice of legal counsel, Lambert wrote to the municipality challenging the bylaws of the Nita Lake Lodge development after council voted 4 to 1 to move ahead with the project.

Soon after, the municipality moved the project back to square one, striking the million dollar donation from the deal and rewriting all the zoning bylaws to avoid a potential lawsuit.

This will force a second public hearing on the development.

Those original bylaws allow the municipality to rezone the end of Lake Placid Road for a four-storey lodge and train station. The development also includes 14 large single family homes dotted in 23 forested acres on the southwest side of the lake.

Included in the land deal are a host of community amenities like:

• 25 acres of sensitive wetlands preserved in perpetuity;

• 7 times the amount of employee housing required by the development;

• $1 million to health care – $500,000 to the Community Foundation of Whistler and $585,000 for X-ray equipment at the Whistler Health Care Centre;

• $15,000 to the Whistler Fisheries Stewardship Group for environmental enhancement work to Jordan Creek;

• $10,000 to WORCA for trail enhancement works; and

• $10,000 for a recreational amenity for youth at Alpha Lake Park.

Lambert challenged some of these amenities on the grounds that they are "unrelated benefits" and as such they could have been used to entice public opinion and council’s judgement.

"I don’t want to impugn anyone’s integrity here because that’s not in doubt," he said.

"This is common practice and it’s common practice not only in Whistler but in other places. But there’s strong case law evidence that says it’s unlawful and that’s not in doubt."

The donation to health care is the only amenity to be struck from the project to date.

"That’s the big one certainly," said Bob MacPherson, acting general manager, planning and development for the municipality.

"We’re still reviewing this with our solicitors."

The Local Government Act gives the municipality some direction on "amenity zoning", stating that a government can increase zoning for amenities.

Under Section 904 it states a zoning bylaw can allow the owner a higher density on a site if certain conditions are met, "conditions relating to the conservation or provision of amenities, including the number, kind and extent of amenities."

This section allowed Glenn and Larry Houghton to build bigger homes at Taluswood in return for a cash donation for community amenities.

So their homes went from 3,500 square feet to 5,000 square feet in return for a $300,000 donation to the Spring Creek day care and Millennium Place.

At the same time previous case law insists there must be a relationship to the zoning and the amenities.

"There’s been some case laws suggesting that there has to be some kind of a relationship between the matter under consideration and the benefit," said MacPherson.

Municipal lawyers are still going through the case law.

Lambert said the benefits provided by developers of the Nita Lake Lodge have been used to entice the community to support the development.

"We think you’re basically selling zoning rights in doing things for donations and giving approvals that you otherwise wouldn’t give as proper planners," he said, adding that the development should stand as a good deal on its own, without unrelated benefits.

Lambert said this development does not stand on its own merits because the lake and the site itself are simply not big enough to support it.

Proper planning in his mind would be to reduce the size of the lodge, which will sit directly opposite his house on Nita Lake.

"It’s not that we don’t want these (benefits) to happen. It’s not that we want to do the community out of those benefits," he said.

"We want council to do the proper job here on zoning and that’s to knock the four-storey, 80-unit hotel on the head and bring it back to a reasonable scale and context. That’s what we want done."

The lodge and train station together will make up 96,000 square feet on a three-acre site.

Lambert’s home is currently the largest development on the lake at about 6,000 square feet on five acres.

"We got a substantial investment," he said.

"I am worried about it. I have to protect what I have here. That’s my legal right."

The municipality is aiming to have a special meeting on Monday, June 30 to give the rewritten bylaws first and second readings. At that time they will schedule another public hearing.

The project going before council at that time is not likely to be much different in its design of four-storeys and 80-rooms.

Only five councillors can vote on the Nita Lake Lodge development because Mayor Hugh O’Reilly and Councillor Gordon McKeever have to declare conflicts of interest.