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B.C. Transit facility moving ahead

Council reluctantly endorses plan during stormy meeting; final approval from B.C. Hydro still pending
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Last Looks Whistler council reluctantly endorsed B.C. Transit's plan to pave a wetland for the province's hydrogen bus hub. AWARE's Sara Jennings (pictured) has been sounding the alarm to environmental groups stationed up and down the corridor. Photo by Brad Kasselman, coastphoto.com

The tension was palpable at Monday night’s council meeting as top B.C. Transit officials presented their plans for a new bus facility on a site that is partially wetland. And despite concerns raised by councillors around the table, one thing was clear throughout the turbulent meeting: The issue is beyond the powers of the municipality.

As monsoon-like rain poured outside, an uncomfortable council voted 4-2 to formally endorse B.C. Transit’s proposal, although many councillors acknowledged there was little they could do that would have changed the Crown agency’s decision.

“It has been clearly stated at the table that given any other option, we would have picked a different site,” said Mayor Ken Melamed.

“Our commitment to protecting the environmentally sensitive wetlands is very strong. This is a case where we have to find a compromise. It is not whether we like it or not, it is whether we support the choice.”

The land in question is owned by B.C. Hydro, a Crown corporation, and is therefore exempt from municipal regulations. It lies adjacent to the municipal works yard, north of Nesters Road, on Highway 99.

B.C. Transit’s CEO and president, Manuel Achadinha, formally stated that the wetland is the agency’s “preferred choice,” and he hopes to begin grubbing as soon as possible. He added that B.C. Transit wants to “start construction of the facility by next spring.”

Meanwhile, B.C. Hydro has not given final approval to the Crown agency to begin the work. According to Arlene Shwetz, manager of community relations for B.C. Hydro, no formal, written agreements have been hammered out.

“We are waiting to hear back from Transit,” said Shwetz.

“We indicated last week that we need to get from them the final proposal… Once we have that, B.C. Hydro and B.C. Transmission Corporation will review it. We would enter into a formal agreement if everything was acceptable.”

Shwetz added that she cannot discuss the content of the agreement publicly, including whether it covers the land’s ecological value.

Despite this possible setback, on Monday Achadinha confidently exhibited the preliminary design of the new transit facility, which will house 20 state of the art hydrogen buses coming to Whistler in 2009 as part of a provincially- and federally-funded pilot program.

The facility will be located on the site’s southeast corner, and B.C. Transit will try to avoid encroaching on the wetland located on the west side of the site, he said.

But a B.C. Transit spokesperson said Tuesday the agency could not release a copy of the facility’s proposed layout to the public yet — even though it was displayed in Monday’s presentation — because plans have not been finalized.

During his presentation, Achadinha also said B.C. Transit had not found an available site as good as the Hydro site, which he called the “tallest of the seven dwarves.”

“It has been a very difficult project,” said Achadinha. “Ideally it would have been perfect to be here today presenting to the community with still a couple years left before the building has to be finished.”

Both councillors who voted not to endorse B.C. Transit’s decision — Ralph Forsyth and Eckhard Zeidler — called the situation a “car crash.”

Forsyth said he was concerned that Whistler is responsible for covering 50 per cent of the Whistler and Valley Express (WAVE) transit system costs, and therefore B.C. Transit’s plans to mitigate the environmental impacts on the wetland could end up costing the municipality huge dollars for a project they had no control over.

“It is like you are allergic to seafood, and we are going out to dinner,” explained Forsyth. “I am picking where to eat, and it is Red Lobster, and you are paying half.”

Zeidler, who has actively drawn attention to the issue, added that B.C. Transit’s plans to mitigate the environmental impact of the bus facility does not make it okay to build on a wetland.

“If you put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig,” said Zeidler. “It is the same with taking an existing wetland and then rebuilding something else.”

Zeidler went on to call the situation “one of the sadder episodes that I have had anything to do with on this council.”

Several of the councillors who voted to endorse the decision talked about the need to maintain the municipality’s relationship with B.C. Transit.

“It is a decision that B.C. Transit has already made with B.C. Hydro, and if we don’t support our partner, we are sticking it to them,” said Councillor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden.

“Transit is too important in this town to do that to them.”

And Melamed said: “It wasn’t my first choice. I couldn’t say I like the site, but I’ll support the site because it is helping us fulfill our commitment to the community.”

Council also unanimously agreed to ask municipal staff to look into rehabilitating the area surrounding Nesters Pond.

The B.C. Hydro land was identified as a red listed vegetation area in 1999 by biologists working with Cascade Environmental.

Transit officials have said they plan to mitigate the environmental damage they will cause to the area by redirecting an unnamed creek on the property to create a new wetland-like environment.

This “build wetland” will maintain habitat linkages between Nesters Pond to the south and Nicklaus North Golf Course to the north. It will also resemble the original wetland enough to support a “diversity of plants and wildlife species.”

The Ministry of Environment has given B.C. Transit the permission to do this. And a member from the Crown agency’s environmental team said he does not believe Transit needs approval from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA).

B.C. Transit has been looking for a new location for its bus maintenance facility since September 2007 when it was announced that Whistler would be receiving the 20 hydrogen cell buses. The current facility in Function Junction is not large enough to accommodate the hydrogen buses. And the municipality has also been concerned with the dead-head costs and extra emissions associated with a transit facility that is not centrally located in Whistler.

During the meeting, five community members voiced their opposition to B.C. Transit’s plans, including Sara Jennings on behalf of the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment, John Buchanan from the Squamish Environmental Conservation Society, and Betty McWhinnie from the Mature Action Committee.

Most of the mayor’s answers reaffirmed that the decision is out of the municipality’s hands.

“The only thing that could potentially change the direction would be for someone to step forward with a piece of land that is free, zoned, big enough, and willing to let construction start this week and clearing start this week,” said Melamed.