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No muni money to move asphalt plant

Council abandons courts, WDC board to negotiate
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Common Ground Eric Martin, chair of the WDC board, has been tasked with finding a long-term solution for the asphalt plant and quarry operating beside the Cheakamus Crossing neighbourhood. He will be meeting with Whistler Aggregates' owner Frank Silveri this month.

Whistler won't be opening its chequebook to move the asphalt plant and quarry, but it has charged a third party to make a deal with Whistler Aggregates.

That means Whistler is abandoning the courts, with council voting against an appeal to try to overturn the BC Supreme Court ruling that says the plant is zoned to operate where it has always operated.

And so, council has asked the Whistler Development Corporation (WDC), and specifically the chair of the board Eric Martin, to find a way to get the plant and quarry operations out of the Cheakamus Crossing neighbourhood.

What isn't clear, however, is just how Martin can do that; and with the law now on his side, it's also not clear what would motivate Whistler Aggregates owner Frank Silveri to move.

What is clear is that both sides want to move on.

"It's water under the bridge," said Silveri this week of the lawsuit that cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars. "Let's start over."

When asked if he was willing to move the plant, Silveri said the discussions have not yet even begun, and it was too early to talk about the future.

He is relieved, however, that there will be no appeal, and that the mood now is for dialogue and discussion.

"I'm glad they didn't (appeal) because we've both spent a lot of money here," he said.

And it appears the municipality is unwilling to spend more at this point.

"We're not going in with a chequebook," said Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden this week. "But we are going to work with WDC to resolve everybody's need on this thing."

Martin, a well-known Vancouver developer, has long volunteered as chair of the WDC. He gets $1 a year for his trouble — countless hours and headaches in building the $161 million athletes' village turned employee-housing neighbourhood.

"The first think I think we're going to try to do is better understand his business so we can understand what his long term objectives are, what might work for him and what might not work for him so it's very much exploratory at the start," said Martin.

"If we understand his business better, we understand what motivates him and what makes him successful."

Martin is both realistic. And hopeful.

Perhaps, he suggested, a different location would be better for the asphalt business.

"We've been given no money to put on the table," he added. "My perception since the election is this council has taken a very, very strong position on financial responsibility and they're not doling out money to anybody any time soon. So we're hoping to find a non-financial solution...That's our first objective."

Against the backdrop of the negotiations with Silveri is the Community Charter, which issues a general prohibition against assistance to businesses.

When asked if she thinks it will take a financial incentive to move, the mayor added:

"I'm not sure what it will take. We're right at the beginning of discussions. Certainly we're going into this with the idea that it's not going to take money."

It's already taken roughly $600,000 to fight unsuccessfully with Whistler Aggregates' owner Frank Silveri in the courts.

On Tuesday the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) announced it would not appeal January's court ruling. Council made its decision behind closed doors. The mayor would not say if it was unanimous or not.

That means the plant will continue to operate next to the Cheakamus Crossing neighbourhood, albeit with upgrades, in time for the 2012-operating season, as negotiations for a long-term solution get underway.

Though there is no appeal, the issue is very much front and centre of council's agenda said the mayor and she had this message to Cheakamus residents:

"This continues to be a top priority for us and we're taking it very seriously."

The news, which was released by the municipality just days before the 30-day deadline to appeal, was met with disappointment by Cheakamus resident Tim Koshul.

"For me personally it's disappointing it had to come to this," said Koshul. "And certainly negotiations would have been less difficult if they started this process before the first home was constructed down there."

Leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games Whistler Aggregates, which had long operated in the area, was busy making asphalt for paving the day lots, among a host of other municipal and private projects.

But operating on the fringe of a construction zone was a far different story to operating next to hundreds of Whistler residents, freshly moved into their new employee housing units.

"It just drives me crazy to think: why didn't they do something with this before the Games?" said Koshul. "And now we're in this situation. I guess we can't turn back the clock but... why did this rush to the Games, and the cocktail parties and the hockey tickets, trump the legacy and the enjoyment of life that... was promised to all these young families down here... It's our Whistler banter — quality of life, fresh mountain air. Why did that take second fiddle to the Games?"

It is not clear if council or staff ever tried to speak to Silveri about moving his plant before the Games.

"I have no first hand knowledge of that," said the mayor.

What she does know is just how difficult the decision was not to appeal the court judgment, which she called "an unexpected result."

"I think it's fair to say, a number of us lost sleep over this issue," said Wilhelm-Morden, a practicing litigator who brought her expertise to the council table. "It was a very difficult issue.

"But we realized that pursing the litigation would have been a very lengthy process. Even if we'd been successful at the appeal we would have had to go back in front of the same trial judge and she seemed to be sending out a fairly loud and clear message in her judgment that she was very sympathetic to Whistler Aggregates. So going back in front of her to seek an injunction would have been a problematic affair. And it would have obviously been expensive. We've spent quite a bit of money on legal fees and other costs associated with this issue already.

"There was also the recognition that the litigation only dealt with the asphalt plant and the quarry is another issue for the neighbourhood that has to be dealt with. So there was a realization that in order to achieve the goals of moving the asphalt plant and closing the quarry operations we would have to have a negotiated outcome with Mr. Silveri. So that's when we made the decision that we ought to ask Whistler 2020 Development Corp for their assistance."

WDC too has a vested interest in moving the plant.

It has been trying to sell market townhouses and lots at Cheakamus since the Games with some difficulty. Moving the plant could help that cause. And getting those market units sold will help clear the roughly $20 million debt still outstanding to the municipality and the Municipal Finance Authority.

That's why Koshul is optimistic that the WDC can find a long-term solution.

"I have confidence that they (the WDC) understand how important this is to future sales in the neighbourhood," said Koshul.

In the meantime, however, Whistler Aggregates will be upgrading its plant.

"The new plant is consistent with the plants that currently operate in Metro Vancouver," said Silveri in the municipality's press release. "It meets the stringent air quality standards set in Metro Vancouver and will ensure a noticeable improvement for the neighbourhood. Further, I am looking forward to working in good faith to find solutions which meet the needs of all parties."

He added in a later interview:

"You wont' even know it's there, more or less."

Still, resident Jessica Columbo is worried about another summer living beside an asphalt plant but she loves her neighbourhood and her home and is trying to stay optimistic.

She said: "Hopefully this course of action will result in the plant being moved sooner than it would have been had council decided to appeal."