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Melamed challenges council on Callaghan

Official Community Plan amendment proposed for residential housing in the Callaghan Going with his gut feeling, Councillor Ken Melamed opposed the first step in developing the Callaghan Valley for residential employee housing at the last council meet

Official Community Plan amendment proposed for residential housing in the Callaghan

Going with his gut feeling, Councillor Ken Melamed opposed the first step in developing the Callaghan Valley for residential employee housing at the last council meeting before the municipal elections.

"The Callaghan and the Olympics will become a catalyst for a large city on the outskirts of Whistler," he argued passionately at Monday’s meeting.

"All we’ll have succeeded in doing is abandoning any efforts to salvage Whistler. We’ll have a new town, possibly up to 10,000 people living in the Callaghan," he later added.

Melamed’s was the lone dissenting voice against the bylaw to amend the Official Community Plan, just as it was against Whistler endorsing the Olympic bid at council’s Oct. 21 meeting.

On Monday night council gave first and second reading to the bylaw to amend the Official Community Plan that would permit the development of residential housing in the Callaghan Valley and the South Cheakamus Bench near the town dump, across the highway from Function Junction.

The OCP as it currently stands does not envision any development on those sites.

"Ten years ago when the community plan was written they weren’t anticipated to be development areas," said Bob MacPherson, the interim general manager, planning and development services for the municipality.

"(The OCP) doesn’t prohibit development. It doesn’t enable it either."

The proposed bylaw does not necessarily mean that the sites will be developed, he added.

"Just to be clear, this is a community plan amendment," said MacPherson.

"It doesn’t allow someone to come in and apply for a building permit for this tomorrow."

The recommendation to amend the OCP comes after three years of discussions with the province for a community land bank where resident housing and community facilities could be located.

Recently the province assured Whistler that the 300-acre Callaghan site would be given to the municipality as a land bank.

The site is also the top choice for the athletes village for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, with the South Cheakamus as the second choice.

Mayor Hugh O’Reilly said developing the Callaghan is a decision that must be put to the community, adding that Monday’s proposed OCP amendment is just a technicality.

"There is no suggestion by anyone on this council that we have any preconceived ideas," he said, cutting off Melamed.

"The community is in full control of this process."

"I don’t think that we should be sitting and giving the land back to the province," said Councillor Nick Davies, adding that there may be an opportunity down the road to trade the land for crown land closer to the village.

"What is the downside of keeping this land?" he asked.

Melamed said there is a downside and that the amendment to the OCP ultimately means that development in the Callaghan is "a fait accompli."

"It’s a done deal. It’ll happen.

"It will go ahead... despite the negative implications for Whistler.

"We should delete the Callaghan from the package of the Olympic bid," said Melamed.

He pointed to the fact that there appears to be sufficient support on council to develop in the Callaghan.

Councillor Stephanie Sloan said she couldn’t imagine a nicer place to live, with the Olympic Nordic Centre in the backyard and Whistler-Blackcomb in the front.

"This is about an option," said Councillor Kristi Wells, who was frustrated by Melamed’s opposition.

"We’ve discussed this for three years.

"I see it as a technical amendment to the OCP."

But Melamed said the answer to Whistler’s housing woes is not moving its employees out to the Callaghan but rather finding spaces for them inside Whistler itself.

"...Based on my understanding of sustainability and Smart Growth... I think it’s a cop out," he said the following day.

"It means we turn our backs on trying to make Whistler a whole and healthy community and try and start a fresh slate down in the Callaghan, but there’s no assurances that we’ll achieve anything different in the Callaghan in the end."

The recommendation was a late addition to Monday’s council meeting. The public hearing for the bylaw will take place on Monday, Nov. 18 immediately prior to that evening’s council meeting.

Due to the timing, the vote will go before a "lame duck council," said Melamed.

The council listening to the public hearing, which may ultimately vote on the recommendation on the night of Nov. 18, may not be the same council sitting there at the first December council meeting, pending the outcome of the municipal elections on Nov. 16.

If there is opposition at a public hearing, council’s practice has been to delay giving third reading until the next council meeting, in order to take time to consider the comments expressed at the hearing.

"Members of the community should plan to come out in force against this amendment to stop this dangerous proposal!" said Melamed the following day.

His concerns about employee housing weren’t just centred on the Callaghan development.

He raised concerns about a number of proposals dealing with employee housing at the council meeting.

There was a proposal for a detached three-car garage with a two-bedroom employee suite above it on a piece of private property. The owner wanted more parking spaces and a caretaker suite above the new garage.

"I don’t believe we can call caretaker suites employee housing," said Melamed, who did not support the rezoning application.

"If we want to have effective employee housing people should have a right to apply from a list to be part of the general pool. These caretaker suites are not creating new employee housing spaces."

Then there was the Bunbury lands rezoning proposal, which includes a new lot for a single family home of up to 5,000 square feet which would be part of the Kadenwood development. The rezoning application also includes three employee cottages and Bunbury will donate $1 million to the Whistler Housing Authority, among other community benefits.

Melamed again raised concerns about whether the employee cottages were caretaker suites or in the general employee housing pool.

He also expressed his concern of the Kadenwood addition, citing the "increased ecological footprint of these oversized homes."

He alone on council opposed first and second reading of bylaws to rezone the Bunbury lands.

Melamed’s opposition to the various proposals throughout the night promted a terse comment from Councillor Ted Milner.

"Councillor Melamed, you’ve been shutting down options all night."

Milner added that the bylaw change to allow residential housing on the Callaghan and the South Cheakamus provides the community with options.

"I won’t talk about the world that Councillor Melamed lives in but I will say that these two areas provide us with options," said Milner.

To Melamed however, the Callaghan is not a viable option.

"Choosing the Callaghan as an option is like choosing a rowboat to cross the ocean," he said the following day.

Kicking off the council meeting Tim Wake, general manager of the Whistler Housing Authority made a presentation about his recent trip to some Colorado resorts where he checked out the employee-housing situation there.

"The lesson here for us... it isn’t because we’re doing it wrong.... The reality is, there is no easy way. We shouldn’t be discouraged by that," he said.

He also pointed out that there is a strong co-relation between the vibrancy of a community and its availability of affordable housing.

Davies asked Wake if there was something like the Callaghan example in Colorado for Whistler to draw a comparison.

Wake used the resort of Vail as an example.

The closest down valley community to Vail is Avon, but the homes in Avon are not deed restricted, meaning they are not controlled by Vail.

Avon is about seven miles or 11 kilometres from the centre of Vail and has its own schools and shopping.

"It’s not contributing to Vail’s vibrancy," said Wake, after the meeting.

The Callaghan on the other hand is 12 km from Whistler Village, but unlike Avon it would have restricted housing without schools and shopping.

"You have to put enough people out in the Callaghan to make it a viable suburb, "said Wake.

"But if you put too many out there, no matter what you do in the way of zoning, eventually there’s going to be incredible pressure to put services out there and once you put services out there then it is truly a down valley community."

For those who are interested there will be a public open house on the Callaghan Valley on Tuesday, Nov. 12 at the Delta Whistler Village Suites from 4 to 8 p.m. There will be an updated Callaghan master plan including sports venues and the athletes village.

The public hearing on the Callaghan will take place at the beginning of council meeting on Monday, Nov. 18.