The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) is hoping you'll raise your voice for Whistler's parks.
Outside Voice—a yearlong community conversation to develop a master plan for the future of local parks—is officially underway, with the first open house scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 6 at the Whistler Conference Centre.
"The process will see the community come together to decide how to keep Whistler's parks vibrant and fresh well into the future," said Mayor Jack Crompton.
"We are asking people in Whistler to use their outside voice to provide input. Over the next 12 months there will be a range of open houses, surveys and online opportunities. "
The planning process will last into late 2019, and involves three phases: Assessing the current inventory; imagining ideas for the future, and designing concepts to move from planning to action.
The assessment phase is already underway, with RMOW staff having completed engineering park surveys and base mapping, staff interviews, a neighbourhood parks and natural areas inventory analysis and a major parks asset inventory and conditions assessment.
Following the open house on Dec. 6, an Outside Voice survey will be distributed from Dec. 7 to 20 to further consult the community.
Follow along at www.whistler.ca/outsidevoice.
CLOSE THE DOORS, PLEASE
Two years after raising the issue in a letter to council (and subsequent story in Pique), Anne Townley has noticed a change in the number of open doors and patio heaters in Whistler—only not in the direction she'd like.
"The only change is more patio heaters," Townley wrote in an update to council earlier this month.
In her letter, Townley requested mayor and council create a bylaw mandating that businesses close their doors if heat or air conditioning units are on, and that patio heaters be banned (or that timers be installed) to avoid the heating of the environment.
"It is unconscionable in this day and age of concerns about the environment and GHG emissions that any business so blatantly waste resources," Townley wrote.
"Two years ago, (c)ouncil of the day thought that education and voluntary compliance would be enough to close doors. That effort has failed miserably. Now is the time for enforcement with a significant fine."
It's an issue she's heard brought up several times, said Councillor Cathy Jewett.
"The other one that always gets brought up, and it was again this week, is plastic bags," she said. "So we are starting to see a lot more municipalities make that bold move into plastic-bag-free municipalities, and I think that this is another step that we could take, especially in light of our recognition of carbon neutrality, is to close our doors."
Coun. Jen Ford agreed, suggesting Townley's letter also be sent to the local retailers association with an expression of support from council.
"I think that this is timely," Ford said.
"We continue to talk about these issues, but I think that we really need to take it seriously."
