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Pique N Your Interest

Walking and talking
andrewbyline

Money talks and bullshit walks, or so the saying goes. But I find it’s not the most accurate expression out there because more often than not I find that it’s money that’s doing all the bullshitting.

Whistler is now battling two unnecessary and short-sighted developments just outside its boundaries, one in the Soo Valley and one at Green River Estates. In both cases the only real driver is the ability to turn a quick buck and the only real attraction is the relative proximity to Whistler and its world class amenities.

This is development we have no control over, and unless we want to see the Sea to Sky corridor transformed into one long, ugly suburb, it’s something we have to fight.

Despite what the developers might say, Whistler will bear the burden of these new neighbourhoods — more cars on the road creating more noise and pollution, more people in the lift lines and at the public beaches, busier parking lots, and more demand for public services like schools, health care, and emergency services. And we will get nothing in return, not even a share of property taxes. Now that’s bullshit.

In the case of the Green River development, Whistler won’t let them hook up to our sewer so they’ve come up with a plan to dump their treated excrement into the Green River, a renewable and valuable resource for three Whistler rafting companies. That’s also bullshit.

Whistler home owners will see the value of their properties erode as the market is glutted with new stock, even though it’s questionable there’s a demand for the stock we already have or that is in the process of being developed. Tourists, lured by legendary West Coast powder, will face longer lines to make turns on what is becoming the mogul skiing capital of North America. Once again, bullshit.

Meanwhile Pemberton’s real estate market is suffering from an oversupply of housing even as developers are proposing more and more projects up and down the valley. Squamish is preparing to spew new neighbourhoods in all directions, just as developers are reviving the Garibaldi at Squamish ski resort concept — complete with about 20,000 new bed units that would double the town’s population on busy weekends. As with the approval of the new big box stores, the whole idea of Smart Growth has been tossed out the window.

Our own plans for sustainability are going out the window with it, as well as the physical beauty and remoteness that made this place so attractive to begin with. What developers are planning for the region can only really be classified as urban sprawl — the same ugly lot by lot development of green spaces that many of us were fleeing when we moved to Whistler and Sea to Sky in the first place.

Can Whistler even have a viable bed cap at this point if developers are just going to drive a little further down the highway and set up stakes for new housing projects — relying on the need of our rural areas to generate more tax revenues to get approval? Where does it stop? In the absence of a Regional Growth Strategy — and given the fact that such a strategy could never be legally binding — can it even be stopped?

To be fair, you can’t blame the developers. Developers develop. There’s no right or wrong to it as far as they’re concerned, and they will never stop as long as there is money to be made. And if they can’t make that money inside of Whistler’s boundaries, they’ll make it five feet outside.

Turning basic economics on its head, developers are so confident in the allure of Whistler that they are building the supply ahead of the demand, not really caring if they look like jerks in the process. And there’s no guarantee that this incursion is going to stop with developments at Wedge and in the Soo — if the 170 or so proposed homes sell quickly that will throw the door open wide for more satellite developments in the future.

If the developers can’t get the approval of municipal governments, they’ll get the approval of regional governments or First Nations that are badly in need of money, amenities and jobs. If that doesn’t work they’ll run crying to our notoriously business-friendly provincial government, which will go ahead and enact something as reprehensible and undemocratic as Bill 30 to allow them to override the sensible wishes of local governments.

The bottom line is that Whistler doesn’t need any more development. We’re reaching buildout —a ludicrously high number of bed units to begin with, judging by the length of lift lines and crowds at our parks — and the new Rainbow and athletes’ village neighbourhoods are well on their way. Continued growth can only dilute the strength of the Whistler product. You could easily make the case that we’ve already passed the tipping point.

Aside from the people who are developers, or make money from development, I don’t know anyone who lives here who is in favour of endless expansion in all directions. It has to stop somewhere, or we risk destroying the very experience that made Whistler such a compelling draw in the first place.

Whether it’s walking or talking, that’s bullshit.