Here's a quick look at what to expect at Tuesday's council meeting, kicking off at 5:30 p.m. at the Maury Young Arts Centre.
CHEAKAMUS HOUSING FINANCES
Council will consider first three readings for an amendment to the five-year financial plan bylaw that will direct money towards developing 100 units of employee housing in Cheakamus Crossing.
The amendment will transfer $200,000 from the housing reserves (representing the bulk of the current housing reserves balance) to the Whistler 2020 Development Corp to develop the units on Parcel A in Cheakamus.
Currently, Whistler's Employee Housing Service Charge bylaw—which collects money from developers' projects to be used for housing—provides about $40,000 to the reserves every year.
But with the provincial government now collecting MRDT on properties listed with online accommodation sites like Airbnb (and those funds being remitted to the municipality quarterly, potentially to be used for employee housing), the reserves are set to grow.
"This creates a second source of inflows for the Employee Housing Reserve Fund, budgeted at $750,000 for 2019," reads a staff report to council.
Tourism Whistler has also "substantially agreed" to contribute its portion of the MRDT revenue collected from online accommodation providers to employee housing for one year.
COMPOST CONTRACT
Council will also vote on awarding a contract for compost operations at the Whistler Compost Facility in the Callaghan Valley at its May 28 meeting.
A staff report recommends awarding the contract to GFL Environmental Inc., which has successfully operated the compost facility for the last 10 years.
Though the report states that the new proposed contract will provide savings for the municipality—from the current $131.60/metric tonne of organic material processed to $125/metric tonne—the total value of the contract is not included in the report.
Council will vote to authorize the mayor and municipal clerk to execute a contract with GFL to operate the facility for the next five years.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
The terms of reference for Whistler's new Strategic Planning Committee will also come back to council at the May 28 meeting.
When council first saw them on April 16, it asked for some revisions to the terms as presented, asking staff to include more community representation.
"It's a whole new concept of planning, and I don't think there's going to be any immediate, quick answers," said Councillor Duane Jackson on April 16.
"I'm sure there's a lot of people in the community that are interested in what we may need to address."
The new terms of reference increase the number of members-at-large from three to five, while removing the representatives from Tourism Whistler, Whistler Blackcomb and the Whistler Chamber of Commerce.
The members-at-large will have skills and/or experience related to community planning and "development in multiple progressive jurisdictions" as well as extensive community involvement.
The committee will be tasked with providing strategic input on long-term community planning and land use, said economic development manager Toni Metcalf at the April 16 meeting.
"It's all about encouraging long-term thinking to benefit the resort community," she said in a presentation to council.
"We already have community vision and goals. This is about the implementation of that."
Find the full council package at https://www.whistler.ca/municipal-gov/council/meeting-agendas-and-minutes.
Pick up Thursday's Pique for more from council.
