A 15-year-old unfinished development deal has come back to haunt the municipality.
Council, after much debate on Monday night, will now seek legal advice to determine whether the new owners of the tennis club lands (known as the Hyatt site) are required to deliver an outstanding community amenity – namely a "world class" tennis facility, a five-star hotel and a large spa – which was negotiated in 1989.
"If the commitment does not exist then I feel I have personally failed the community by being part of the proposal call that allowed this development to take place as it was presented to Council in the ’80’s," wrote former Whistler Mayor Drew Meredith in a letter to council this week.
"…to hear now that those commitments are "vague" or not supported by the paperwork makes my stomach turn. Ask any planning staff at the time and they will tell you the commitment was crystal clear."
The 15-year-old commitment has been the subject of much debate ever since The Holborn Group bought the site, located north of the village between Lorimer Road and Nancy Greene Drive, in 2002.
Instead of building a 450-room hotel and spa, the developers have submitted a rezoning application to build roughly 150 market townhouses and condos instead. Though that rezoning application was submitted a year ago, the municipality has yet to get legal advice on their position.
They rezoning application also includes up to $7 million in upgrades to the existing tennis club and a seniors housing complex.
"I’m not asking for anything more," Holborn’s Jimmy Yap told council on Monday night. "I’m asking for downzoning."
While most on council agree that Whistler doesn’t need another hotel on the outskirts of the village, questions abound about whether there is still a legal obligation to provide the resort with the long-promised community amenity.
"I do see a certain unfulfilled economic obligation here," said Councillor Gordon McKeever at the council meeting.
That economic obligation stems from a 1989 proposal call to develop four season amenities in the resort, designed to diversify Whistler’s economic base.
Three projects were chosen in that proposal call of more than 20 which were submitted. They were the Nicklaus North golf club, the Chateau Whistler golf club and the tennis club.
The bed units to develop the real estate were based on those amenities.
Two projects became world class golf clubs. The other project, promised by original developer Park Georgia, is a far cry from what was anticipated 15 years ago.
"I took a lot of heat from certain people on that particular project because it was felt that there were better investments to be made…," said Meredith in an interview with Pique Newsmagazine. "And I was arguing at the time that we needed a diverse summer product in order to provide a true year-round resort… It should have happened a long time ago."
Though it has been mostly local members of the tennis club fighting for the original amenity, local real estate agent and tennis club member Michael D’Artois said it’s not just about local tennis players wanting a better clubhouse.
"It’s not about the tennis club," he said. "This is about a large world class recreational amenity that was to be supported by a large hotel and spa."
This amenity was designed to bring people to the resort in the shoulder season, and fill hotel rooms and restaurants, just as the Chateau and Nickalaus North golf courses do now.
D’Artois likened the developers’ proposal to downzone the land to the Chateau presenting the municipality with a plan to remove nine holes of their golf course in order to build more real estate.
"We as a community benefit from the recreational infrastructure of the community," he said.
"It’s really about bringing people to Whistler."
Fifteen years later with no hotel, no spa, no world class tennis club, Whistler is a much different place than it was back then and arguably tennis is a different sport.
"Tennis today isn’t what it was in 1989," said Councillor Ken Melamed.
That’s not the point said D’Artois.
The community gave bed units for these amenities and as such, those amenities should be the absolute starting point for negotiations with the developer.
"These people (The Holborn Group) cannot water down the magnitude of the facility that was going there," he said, adding that before Park Georgia’s proposal came forward the land was only zoned for one house.
As it stands the developer wants to build market units, upgrade the tennis facilities, potentially convert three courts to a skating rink in the winter, hand over wetlands to the municipality and give back more than 200 unused bed units associated with that site.
They also plan to build a seniors housing complex, which is a huge selling point for this council, which has long been looking for a seniors site.
"I think this is a very critical site for the seniors housing," said Councillor Marianne Wade.
After hearing from the developer about their plans for the site and from tennis club members who are still waiting for the community amenity, Councillor Nick Davies tried to get council to stall the project. He wanted to put the development on hold until the municipality got legal advice about the developer’s obligations, if any, and also until the developer had done an analysis on why a world class tennis facility is not economically viable on that site.
He called these "threshold issues" and wanted them clarified before taking up any more staff time on the project or before taking it to the public.
Council would not support his calls to stall.
Debate ensued about whether or not Whistler needed the legal opinion with Councillor Ken Melamed saying that opinion could relieve the developer of any upgrades altogether.
Davies, who is a lawyer, said that was a dangerous strategy. He said council has a duty to the community to bargain from as strong a position as possible and it’s better to know exactly what that position is.
In the end council agreed to get a legal opinion and laid out a number of other requirements as staff continue to work processing this development application.
Chief among those requirements was a third party report on the economic and operational analysis of the future tennis club.
