For the first time ever council has asked developers to make their housing projects “solar ready” for the future — a sign of how serious it is about green building standards.
The request came at the 11 th hour as both the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Games (VANOC) and the Whistler2020 Development Corporation (WDC) submitted plans for housing at the athletes’ village.
“We’d be foolish not to require it,” said Councillor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden who brought forward the idea after hearing about advances in solar technology at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities meeting last month.
At Monday’s meeting VANOC was looking for approval of 20 townhouses that will be connected to its High Performance Centre in the athletes’ village.
The WDC, the municipal organization responsible for building the athletes’ village, was looking for approval of an additional 20 townhouses that will be a part of the overall legacy neighbourhood after the Games.
Both developments were approved with the caveat that the buildings have a “flexible platform” to convert to solar energy in the future as that technology becomes available. However, Councillor Eckhard Zeidler opposed the VANOC project pending the release of the business plan for the athletes’ centre (see story below).
There was some debate at Monday’s meeting about whether council could make this request at the 11 th hour.
Mayor Ken Melamed said it was the only time to make the recommendation because the athletes’ village development has been under such tight timelines that council has not been able to provide a lot of feedback.
“We’ve been fast tracking all this stuff and approve, approve, approve and there wasn’t any detail,” said the mayor.
“We have such a good working relationship with the development corp. board and VANOC, we felt comfortable making the recommendation and are confident that they’ll comply.”
Council discussed the possibility of adding a “solar chase” — a space in the walls that could hold pipes or wires to transfer solar energy.
“It’s very inexpensive to do it today, to provide the potential to go in that direction,” said Melamed.
VANOC’s 20 townhouses will be modular buildings, separated into four buildings, located in the core of the village close to the athletes’ centre.
The WDC’s 20 townhouses are part of the hundreds of housing units that will be converted to employee housing after the Games.
Councillor opposes VANOC housing, asks for business plans
Councillor Eckhard Zeidler is hoping his vociferous opposition of VANOC’s latest housing project will grab some attention.
Specifically, he is looking for the much-anticipated business plans for the athletes’ centre, the sliding centre, and the Nordic centre, all of which will be run by the Whistler Legacies Society after the 2010 Games.
“We haven’t seen the business plans for any of the assets of the society,” he said.
He opposed the development permit for VANOC’s 20 townhouses, connected to the athletes’ centre, in the hope that the organizing committee will get the message that its plans are long overdue. Council says the plans were due one year ago.
After the meeting Mayor Melamed said council had seen a draft plan for the athletes’ centre.
When asked if that plan showed the centre recovering its costs, the mayor said: “I’m not going to go into details of what the business plan looked like. It was a first blush. The only thing I could say is it left questions for council. Council is keen to see the final business plan.”
He did, however, say that the community should take comfort in the fact that after the Games the three venues are the responsibility of the legacies society, not the municipality of Whistler.
The Whistler Legacies Society has a $110 million legacy fund, 40 per cent of which will be allocated to the three venues. Whistler is just one member on the board of the society.
Council gives $1 million for WHA rental building
Council has unanimously approved a $1 million contribution to help fund a Whistler Housing Authority (WHA) rental building in the athletes’ village.
The WHA will fund the bulk of the $7 million project but has asked council to come to the table with some money too.
“This happened as a result of the housing authority wanting to get engaged and needing some support and council felt that this was an important enough project,” said Mayor Ken Melamed after Monday’s council meeting. It helps the municipality too, which is ultimately responsible for delivering 2,000 athlete beds to the village by 2010.
Partners like the WHA bring cash and take on some of the risk.
The $1 million contribution will come from the four per cent hotel tax, also known as Whistler’s new “financial tools” obtained from the province.
The four per cent hotel tax is expected to total $6.6 million in 2007 and thereabouts in years following. Of that money, council has set aside $2 million every year for four years to an Employee Housing & Infrastructure fund. In the fifth year, $1.5 million will go into that fund.
The bulk of that money — $8 million — will go directly into the $131 million athletes’ village project.
The fund will also cover the $1 million for the rental building, leaving half a million in the fund.
The 55-unit WHA building will be made up of 40 compact studios and 15 one-bedroom units. It will house athletes during the 2010 Games and be converted to rental housing in July 2010.
