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Nita Lake Lodge trade-off brings more resident housing

The Nita Lake Lodge developers have replaced the million-dollar donation to Whistler’s health care system with more resident housing for the community.

The Nita Lake Lodge developers have replaced the million-dollar donation to Whistler’s health care system with more resident housing for the community.

The change was part of the new bylaws, which were drafted after a community member challenged parts of the complex land deal.

Instead of the donation to health care there will now be four new townhouses added to a 40-unit resident housing complex on the west side of Nita Lake.

In addition, nine of those townhouses will be built by the developer and granted to the municipality with a value of just over $1 million.

Considering this trade-off, council moved forward with the project once again on Monday night.

The Nita Lake Lodge development is made up of a four-storey 80-room boutique lodge, a multi-million dollar train station and 14 single family homes in the Creekside area.

The developers proposed to donate $1 million to health care because the original plans included a surgical centre at the site. The centre was later dropped from the project.

There were also many other community amenities included in the deal, chief among them a gift of 25 acres of sensitive wetlands to be preserved in trust and more than 200 employee bed units to go into the resident housing pool.

Just as the project was in the final approval stages in May, a neighbour challenged parts of the deal, calling into question the list of extensive amenities.

Keith Lambert, who also lives on the shores of Nita Lake, specifically disputed the donation to health care because it was entirely unrelated to the rezoning for the project.

He said there is case law in B.C. to back up his claim that any benefits must be related to the development in question.

Even though the donation has now been removed from the deal, Lambert is still not satisfied with the current proposal.

"I’d be surprised if it’s the right answer," he said after Monday’s special council meeting.

"But on the other hand I fully understand that they only way we’re going to find out (if it’s the right answer) is if in fact we decide to take it on (legally) and we haven’t made a decision on that yet."

Lambert questions the gift of the wetlands and the resident housing that comes along with the project.

"It is our contention that zoning is still being bought and sold here and causing a development that otherwise would not be approved to be approved," said Lambert, adding that the scale and size of the project is too big for Nita Lake.

Even though no writ for a lawsuit has ever been filed, council was very cautious of procedure on Monday night when they passed the new bylaws.

A number of changes were made to the wording of the bylaws to make things clearer.

There were also a few minor tweaks to the project.

Originally the developers had planned to donate $10,000 to the Whistler Off Road Cycling Association for trail development. That donation will now go to the municipality.

They had also planned to give $15,000 to the Whistler Fisheries Stewardship Group for stream enhancement. Likewise that money will go directly to the municipality.

The developer had also planned to develop green building guidelines during construction. That provision has also been removed from the bylaws.

Bob MacPherson, interim general manager of planning and development services at the municipality, explained to council that the green building practices were removed because the appropriate place to pursue those guidelines is in a building bylaw.

"This is not a retraction on the part of the developer whatsoever," he said, adding that Nita Lake Lodge has already retained a consultant.

Four councillors voted to move Nita Lake to the next stage with only Councillor Ken Melamed opposing the deal, as he has in the past. Councillor Gordon McKeever and Mayor Hugh O’Reilly cannot vote of the project because they have conflicts of interest.

Melamed made three arguments, which were later countered by Councillor Nick Davies.

His first issue was over environmental concerns. Part of the Nita Lake deal is for the developers to buy the 27 acres of the sensitive Alpha Creek wetlands, located north of Function Junction. They are planning to gift 25 acres of that land to the municipality to be preserved and protected in trust.

The Alpha Creek wetlands are only a portion of the larger Miller Creek wetlands. It would be harder to get the whole tract of wetlands protected once it is subdivided, said Melamed.

But Davies said though he appreciates those environmental concerns, he pointed out that the municipality has never once stepped up to the table to buy and protect those lands, known as the Zen lands.

Melamed also argued against transferring the bed units from the wetlands, which were zoned TV 1 for a campground, to the Creekside site. Developers need bed units to build in Whistler.

"It’s my belief that a TV 1 bed unit is not a luxury boutique hotel bed unit," he said.

Davies said this concept of bed units is almost outmoded.

"The bed units are, were, intended to address carrying capacity," he said, adding that the Nita Lake development is not going to place a burden on the community with respect to waste water and sewage treatment.

Finally Melamed argued against the size and scale of the project on the shores of Nita Lake commenting that it’s "an inappropriate design."

But Davies said it’s like a balancing act and ultimately he said the project is going to do great things for Whistler, particularly for Creekside.

"I agree, it’s not ideal," he said.

"It’s not all that bad either."

Even though Melamed wanted to take the revamped deal back to the community in the form of additional open houses, he did not get support from other council members.

"I’m not prepared to delay the process," said Davies.

"I think there’s been enough public consultation, at least in my view."

The community will get a chance to comment on the latest changes at a public hearing on Wed. July 16 at Millennium Place at 6 p.m.

In the meantime, Lambert will be reviewing his options with his lawyers and to wait and see what happens at the public hearing.

"I think the priority is for the townspeople to voice their objection," he said.

Davies said: "In a community such as this it’s virtually impossible to do something without affecting one’s neighbours."