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Housing units on horizon

Hundreds more market units on horizon, millions more investment

Several new developments are quickly making their way through municipal hall.

On Tuesday night council considered three residential projects – the Shoestring Lodge, the Holborn redevelopment and Cheakamus North.

While there are still some concerns about aspects of each project, council appears to be interested in pushing all three proposals ahead.

Together they represent more than 225 new units of market housing in the valley and millions of dollars in construction. In return, the municipality will get some employee housing, a state of the art tennis facility, a seniors housing complex and a road linking Spring Creek to Millar’s Pond.

The Holborn project

The biggest project on the books by far is the redevelopment of the tennis club lands by the Holborn Group.

The land is located off Lorimer Road opposite Marketplace.

After the last council sent the project back for further revision in September 2005, the developer has been in consultation with the local tennis community.

The Holborn Group is now proposing a tennis facility with five indoor courts and seven outdoor courts. There will be a fitness facility, outdoor swimming pool and a restaurant as part of the development.

Tennis Canada’s president and CEO likes what is proposed.

"Assuming it is built to specifications, we would welcome the opportunity of requesting that Whistler and the Whistler Tennis Centre host professional men’s or women’s tennis tournaments, including Davis and Fed Cup home ties," wrote Michael Downey in a letter of endorsement. "The present facility, as designed, would be superior to most of the venues presently considered suitable for these prestigious events."

The rest of the land will be a townhouse and apartment development, comprising 181 market units.

"It’s good to see this back," said Councillor Gord McKeever. "Let’s get this going."

It’s been 11 months since the proposal has formally been before council in a public meeting.

Councillor Tim Wake asked about the delay, specifically if any "dillydallying" on the part of the municipality had caused it. While he said he wasn’t trying to place any blame, he was acknowledging that time is money.

"It’s an issue with many proposals here," he said.

The developer’s architect, Peter Lang, explained that the old plans were essentially thrown out after the last council considered the proposal and they started again from scratch.

Tuesday he stressed the importance of moving the project, which has been two years in the making, forward in the rezoning process.

"We’ve been delayed for two years in the process already and every year that the Holborn Group miss a building season it costs them a lot more in the project," said Lang. "So the question is: if we get delayed again for another year and we miss another building season, will this actually still be an affordable project for them to do?"

A committee made up of members of the Whistler Valley Tennis Club has been working with the developer. And while there has been good progress to date, the tennis community is looking for more.

Chief among their outstanding concerns are the small size of the fitness club and the fact that there are no squash courts, said committee member John Konig.

"We don’t want to slow the process but we still have some issues," he said this week.

By all indications, however, council is keen to move it forward for more public feedback despite a few of their own concerns.

Councillor Bob Lorriman said he believes the project is almost ready but that it still needs a little tweaking to ensure that it’s the best facility to help grow tourism.

Mayor Ken Melamed’s comments spoke to the increase in market units from the last iteration. In September 2005 the project called for 153 market units, now it’s 181 units.

Every time the community asks for more, he said, the developer asks for more too.

The developer is allowed to build a nine-storey hotel on the site and use 837 bed units. This development will use up 661 bed units with the remainder going to the municipality.

The mayor also pointed the developer to Whistler 2020 – the municipality’s vision for sustainability for the next 20 years.

In that vision Whistler has a community energy system that is delivered through a district heating system of underground pipes. He asked that the development meet those standards at the outset.

"It’s very important to me to have a signed commitment before this goes forward to achieve that," he said.

An open house is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 30 from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Spruce Grove Field House.

Cheakamus North

Like Holborn, the Cheakamus North project has also been a long time in coming.

Set on a 20 acre parcel of land on the east side on Highway 99, Cheak North, as proposed, will finally link the Spring Creek and Millar’s Pond neighbourhoods with a road running parallel to the highway.

Developer Tim Regan is asking for more development rights in exchange for the road, which includes a bridge over Alpha Creek. He would like to build four estate homes in the area.

Council has a few concerns about the project, not the least of which was consultation with the community and the Whistler Housing Authority before moving it forward.

"I think we need to be engaging our community in every possible way here," said Wake, adding that he thought they were jumping the gun in the rezoning process without having a public information meeting first.

And while there were some concerns about the two employee housing units proposed – they would go to employees of the developer rather than WHA waitlisters – council was quick to assure that the project was on the right track.

"I think the spirit here is definitely moving in the right direction," said Lorriman.

One red flag was the size of the estate homes.

The zoning would allow one principal residential building and up to two auxiliary buildings. The maximum size among the three would be 5,005 square feet. But, that could increase up to 7,500 square feet through a bonusing plan, provided the owners add an employee suite. That suite would be in one of the auxiliary buildings as a caretaker or nanny suite and would also not be available to people on the wait list.

Lorriman said he didn’t think nanny suites should be considered employee housing and wanted feedback from the WHA.

The mayor also took issue with the size.

"I’ve never been comfortable with a 7,500 square foot house," he said. "I find that unpalatable, frankly."

General manager of development and planning Bob McPherson said staff is considering the road as the major amenity to the municipality, not the housing.

In that case, Wake said, the employee housing should be removed so as not to cloud the issue.

There are six bed units connected to the site, or enough to build one single family home. The road could add another six bed units, in which case the developer would need another 12 bed units from the municipality to realize this development.

And while it was sent back to staff, the message was clear.

"I want to keep this wagon rolling," said Councillor Ralph Forsyth.

The Shoestring Lodge.

The Shoestring Lodge redevelopment crossed another hurdle Tuesday night as council gave third reading to the project.

This development will bring 41 townhouse units of market housing to the six acre site at the entrance to White Gold. It will also provide 36 units of employee housing.

Mayor Melamed reiterated his concerns that the developer comes back with green building standards before the project is adopted.

He would like them to work to the Whistler Green standards, which outline green building guidelines for single-family homes. This development is multi-family and townhouse and so the standards may not be completely compatible.

"We’re just looking for a report from them about what components of Whistler Green they’ll apply and how they intend to meet the intent of what we’re trying to achieve with Whistler Green on single family homes," said the mayor.