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Demand for industrial land growing

Companies want industrial uses on Mons Industrial, Mons Court and B.C. Hydro lands

Do large trucks and works yards belong near Nesters?

That question got significant air time during Monday night’s council meeting, which saw councillors debating whether a new “industrial hub” should be relocated on a stretch of land approximately 2 kilometres north of the village.

Several companies say they want to locate their businesses to one of three properties clustered around the Mons-Highway 99 area: Mons Industrial Land, Mons Court and the B.C. Hydro Lands.

But Whistler’s 14-year-old community official community plan (OCP) states all industrial-use companies should be in Function Junction, south of the village. If a second industrial park is needed, reads the OCP, it should also be located south of the municipality.

“It is not a big deal with this parcel,” said Councillor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden while discussing the Mons Court property.

“None of this is a big deal with any of these parcels. But if you put them all together, then it is a big deal.”

Councillor Tim Wake agreed council should take a more comprehensive look of the whole area.

He said: “We keep putting off difficult, long range planning, and we keep making short term, ad hoc decisions that then become long term decisions.”

“It is clear… that Function Junction is not suitable for heavy industrial any more, but we haven’t taken the time to look at where heavy industrial should go,” he said.

The three areas, located directly south of the CN Rail line and Nicklaus North Golf Course, border on some of Whistler’s last wetlands, which are home to fish, geese and otters.

The most prominent of these three parcels is Mons Industrial, owned by longtime local businessmen Steve Bayly and Nigel Woods. Bayly and Woods have submitted a proposal to municipal hall that would allow a number of industrial uses on the site. The list of potential uses includes relocating Whistler’s transit hub to the triangle-shaped property, as well as a fuel service station, motor vehicle maintenance and storage facility and waste and recycling depot for household garbage.

A public hearing Monday saw 17 community members walk up to the podium at MY Millennium Place, with most speaking of the merits an industrial centre close to the village and the centre of the valley would have: less carbon expended moving buses and machinery to-and-from the village area and less economic costs incurred.

“We are really in a position now where we really need to find and hopefully push forward this application,” said David Zerr, CEO of Mainroad Howe Sound Contracting Ltd., the company responsible for clearing the highway of snow between Function Junction and Pemberton during the winter months.

“Our plan is to use this site to store materials and to locate snow clearing equipment when required at this location so we can respond more quickly to weather events that reduce traction on Highway 99 north of Function Junction…. As the Olympics draw closer, we will have to locate significantly more people and equipment in close proximity to the village.”

Other businesspeople expressed similar needs to move their businesses quickly to the site, including representatives from Coastal Mountain Excavation, Whistler Resort Cabs and tour operator Bill Murray, who talked about the advantages of having a place for tour buses in Whistler.

Former councillor Nick Davies took a different approach in expressing why he wants Mons Industrial to be rezoned from a residential single estate to a light industrial space.

“About 4,000 of these bags full of carbon are dumped into the atmosphere unnecessarily a year,” said Davies holding up a zip lock bag filled with brownie-sized blocks representing carbon.

“If the transit facility was in the middle of town, buses would be making a lot less trips and there would be a lot less carbon going into our atmosphere every year.”

Not all are happy with the Mons Industrial proposal.

“I am concerned with the announcement that the road (from the highway to Mons Industrial) is going to be on the Hydro wetlands,” said community member Sara Jennings, who spoke as an individual, not president of environmental-group AWARE.

“I do not want anything on the Hydro lands. Even if it is above the wetlands, it will totally pocket them. That wetland is going to be very threatened. I think there have got to be other sites out there that we will be able to access. I know we are on a time crunch, but that is not a reason to make a bad decision.”

The municipality also received seven pieces of correspondence on the proposal, of which three were against.

Monday night’s meeting also saw a discussion amongst councillors whether more industrial uses should be added to Mons Court, adjacent to the Sabre property and almost directly across the highway from Mons Industrial.

A landscape company, taxi and limousine service and test laboratory currently sit on the site, even though these uses are not permitted.

“This begs the question, why haven’t we gotten a needs assessment similar to what we did in the village years ago?” said Mayor Ken Melamed.

“I have the sense that this is somewhat haphazard and I am gaining discomfort…

“There are different types of businesses that can’t find a home and not surprisingly, everyone wants to be located close to the village. Yet clearly we cannot accommodate everyone in that small zone.”

Council, based on the suggestion of Councillor Gord McKeever, decided to refer the proposal back to staff see if interim zoning could be put on the land until the municipality has had time to take a more comprehensive look at whether industrial uses should be allowed at this location near the village centre.

Wake added that council has been talking about what the future of Function Junction — and industrial zoning — should be since the beginning of their term.

“I think we need to stop the craziness here and look at the long range planning,” reaffirmed Wake.

“We need to do a bit of a needs assessment. We are following the market, we are not leading the market, and that just seems wrong.”

To punctuate the industrial hub theme, Kelly Richards also asked council during the public question and answer period what they are going to do to make sure that B.C. Transit does not move their bus hub to the B.C. Hydro lands.

B.C. Transit is currently looking at both B.C. Hydro and Mons Industrial to put the new bus hub, and while the two properties sit side-by-side, the wetlands on the B.C. Hydro site have been identified as more ecologically sensitive.

“There is a stream going through there,” said Richards.

“Every year the otter comes back, but if that land is not maintained, that is not going to help the animals.”

While the Crown corporation-owned land is not subject to municipal zoning laws, the mayor reaffirmed that B.C. Transit is only investigating the site at this time.

“The comments in the paper suggested that B.C. Transit does not have to come forward with reasoning for the transit site because B.C. Hydro owns the land and is exempt from rezoning,” said Melamed.

“There was a suggestion that we would allow this to go through without any comment or discussion with B.C. Transit as a partner, and that is not the case.”

He added that while technically B.C. Transit could impose the bus station location on the municipality, he does not believe they would.

“I believe we have developed a respectful relationship,” he said.