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Nita Lake Lodge well supported at public hearing

A handful of community members express concern about the proposal The multi-faceted development scheme set to change the face of Creekside prompted more than 30 members of the public to speak out at a public hearing on Monday night.

A handful of community members express concern about the proposal

The multi-faceted development scheme set to change the face of Creekside prompted more than 30 members of the public to speak out at a public hearing on Monday night.

Some offered their unconditional support of the Nita Lake Lodge development. Others tried to reconcile the increased development along the shores of Nita Lake with the community benefits offered as part of the entire project. And a handful of locals opposed the deal altogether.

The Nita Lake Lodge developers propose to build an 80-room "boutique" lodge at the end of Lake Placid Road, 14 tourist-accommodation zoned single family homes on an adjoining piece of land, a Creekside train station and a sizeable chunk of employee housing. They also plan to preserve a large tract of the sensitive Alpha Creek wetlands.

Because the project has so many different components, many community members focused on particular elements of the development.

Whistler-Blackcomb’s director of employee experience Kirby Brown said he supports the project after looking at the employee housing component, which includes more than 200 employee beds, both for seasonal and long-term workers.

Brown said Intrawest has a demographic of workers who have been living in the community for more than six years with a "desire to remain in Whistler and work for us." Brown said he falls into this demographic himself.

The key issue for this demographic is affordable housing.

Likewise chamber of commerce representative Kathy Barnett, who was speaking on behalf of the chamber’s employee housing committee, offered the chamber’s support for the mixture of employee housing proposed by the developer.

The research shows that there is a specific need for seasonal employee housing much like the proposed apartment-style units she said.

"(It) will go a long way to meet the employee housing needs in Whistler," she added.

There was also a show of support for preserving the 25 acres of wetlands, known as the Alpha Creek lands.

"The preservation of these important ecosystems is one of the objectives of AWARE," said Wendy Horan, president of the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment, who spoke in favour of the sensitive land trust portion of the project.

She added that opportunities like the one presented by Nita Lake, where the developers would buy 27 acres of the Alpha Creek wetlands and donate 25 acres to the municipality to preserve in trust, don’t come around very often.

There was also a show of support for the potential tourism benefits from the proposed multi-million dollar train station.

Nita Lake Lodge developers are also part of a proposal to start a passenger train service from Vancouver to Whistler. The targeted passengers, primarily from Vancouver’s busy cruise ship industry, would arrive at the new station in Creekside and spend money in the resort while visiting.

President and CEO of Tourism Whistler Suzanne Denbak said the train station would be good for the summer and shoulder seasons.

"We haven’t tapped into that cruise market because we haven’t had the right offering," she said adding that the train station could pave the way for future business opportunities.

Stuart Rempel, vice president of sales and marketing for Whistler-Blackcomb, who was speaking on behalf of the company, echoed the praise for the train station.

"It provides a great connection to the well-established cruise ship business," he said.

"It keeps the rail transportation solution to Whistler alive."

Other community representatives spoke out in favour of the cash donation for equipment at the Whistler Health Care Centre and to the Community Foundation of Whistler.

Of the $500,000 donation to the CFOW, Nancy Wilhelm-Morden, president of the foundation’s board of directors said: "It will create a community savings account. That benefit will last long after all of us are gone."

Creekside neighbours had mixed feelings about the project. While some were concerned about increased noise in the area as well as the size and scale of the project, others were looking forward to a long-awaited facelift for Creekside.

Keith Lambert, who lives at the north end of Nita Lake, said the combined 96,000 square foot hotel and train station on the three acre site at Nita Lake, doesn’t fit.

"(It’s) clearly out of scale and context with Nita Lake," he said, calling on the developers to reduce the four storey hotel by two stories.

Hugh Oswald whose home is next to the hotel is concerned about noise coming from the hotel restaurant and hot tubs. He called for a buffer zone of trees to muffle the noise.

Former Councillor Stephanie Sloan also asked for council’s reconsideration of the hotel on the three-acre site, calling instead for more green space in the area.

"Creekside is starved for parkland," she said.

"It is a jewel. Let’s not pave paradise."

Sloan added that the village was built around preserving the view corridor of the mountains. She said the view corridor to Nita Lake would be lost with the hotel.

"It goes against good planing for a variety of reasons," she said.

But other neighbours were excited about the project as it promises to revitalize the long-ignored Creekside area of Whistler.

"Creekside’s time has truly come," said Vicky Hyndman, who lives opposite the old train station.

Her comment was repeated by a number of long-time Creekside locals who are excited to see the so-called gateway to Whistler cleaned up.

Speaking as a member of the public rather than any of the community groups he is part of, Mitch Rhodes said: "The line between success and the road to decline is illusive," referring to too much development in the resort.

While there are some elements of the project which concern him, like the setbacks from Jordan Creek, Rhodes said the preservation of the wetlands and the cash donation to the health care centre swayed him to put his support behind the development.

As is its custom when there is any opposition at a public hearing, Whistler council deferred third reading on the project to a later meeting. Mayor Hugh O’Reilly and Councillor Gord McKeever have conflicts of interest and were not part of the public hearing. They will not vote on the proposal.

The Nita Lake Lodge proposal is on council agenda for third reading at the next council meeting on Monday, May 5.