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Residents vent about asphalt plant

Public hearing draws lots of opposition; council withholds final decision
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What could have taken days took a prim two hours.

21 people spoke in opposition to the proposed rezoning and movement of the asphalt plant at Tuesday's public hearing. Another 64 letters of opposition were submitted.

Only three speakers and four written submissions supported the proposal.

Council members, who seemed attentive and appreciative of everyone's remarks, withheld their decision on the controversial plan. The matter is expected to come to a decisive vote at the Sept. 21 council meeting.

There was some expectation that the number of speakers could necessitate adjourning the public hearing Tuesday and continuing it Wednesday. But with no more speakers Mayor Ken Melamed declared the public hearing closed at about 8:15 p.m.

The hearing started at 6 p.m. and while there was no limit on the number of times a person could speak, they were all limited to five minutes at a time, with a digital clock counting backward. Several people addressed council twice.

Almost all were calm and rational, delivering speeches fueled by intellect rather than emotion, summing up what the majority of those present Tuesday believe to be a flawed proposal.

There was noticeably less anger at this public hearing than in council question and answer periods in the past few months. But while much of the evening was ruled by calm, well-reasoned discussion, rather than emotion, the frustrations of certain members of the public boiled over.

"To enter into an agreement with Alpine Paving amounts to a contravention of fundamental justice and due process," said resident Gary Carson. "Alpine Paving presently operates in contravention of zoning and therefore (it) would be unjust to rezone a parcel to compensate for its unlawful activity."

Marlene Gervais said the bylaw amendments "are being rushed and made prematurely." She is willing to live with the status quo until a better resolution is reached. The proposed move needs to be reconsidered and a new location should not be chosen until new, comprehensive air movement studies have been done. She questioned the logic that a "shrewd" businessman such as Alpine Paving owner Frank Silveri would invest $2 million in a plant only to reduce production at its facility, which council is proposing.

"I've spent over 30 years in corporate finance and that goes against any business principle I have ever heard of," she said.

"We need factual information, not possible scenarios," she added. "The new location could be putting us in a worse situation than we are in now."

A number of speakers questioned the legitimacy of Alpine Paving's current operations, citing the opinion of lawyers Andrew Gage of West Coast Envrionmental Law and the municipality's own lawyer, Don Lidstone. Both agreed that the company is operating illegally on its current site.

The logical thing to do, several people argued, would be to vote against the rezoning application.

"It's been apparent from the get-go that this plant has no business being where it is," said Nancy Wilhelm-Morden. "It wasn't allowed in the zoning. The problem with that is I can't account for the fact that council has said... that the plant is allowed in that zone. How can that be? I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding of the facts."

She urged council to start the process all over again. She also asked council to release all confidential information to help restore public trust.

"You ask us to trust you going forward. I don't mean to be disrespectful but trust has flown the coop a long time ago," she said.

Her comments, and others who made similar suggestions, seem to be fueled by comments made by Lidstone in a letter to Bill Barratt, chief administrative officer for the RMOW. Lidstone wrote that Gage and others did not have access to the "additional, confidential background information that has informed our previous opinions to the RMOW on this issue."

Mayor Ken Melamed said after the first round of speakers had submitted that it's in the community's best interest to maintain the confidentiality.

"Everything that council can and must disclose to the public has been disclosed," Melamed said. "The only information not disclosed is protected by absolute privilege and no government would release this information to the public."

Perhaps the most succinct statements came from local photographer Dave Buzzard, who said that legal opinions are "meaningless" without context and that council really needs to flex a bit more muscle in telling Alpine Paving to move elsewhere.

"You have said, 'our hands are tied, and there is nothing we can do about it.' Screw that. Fight it. You haven't fought a damn thing since you've been elected," he said. "You need to show some balls, show some nards. Some cojones."

Not everyone was opposed to the asphalt plant proposal. Paul Mathews, a 40-year resident of Whistler, said it's important that environmental sustainability "have an equal place on the podium as environmental sustainability."

He said he supports the rezoning amendment but did have a problem unloading the burden of paying for the asphalt plant's move on to the taxpayers.

"In my opinion, those uses have been there historically, they are in the right location and they should stay there," he said. "I find in dealing with asphalt, I'm absolutely aghast at the emotional rhetoric because I can find nowhere any credible evidence that asphalt or asphalted concrete are health hazards."

There was some laughter and scoffing at this comment before Melamed hushed them and allowed Mathews to continue.

"Potable drinking water reservoirs are lined with asphalt, so I think it's just hysterical eco-freaks."

RMOW policy is that if there is any dissent at a public hearing, third reading of a proposed bylaw will be withheld at least until the next council meeting.

Following any public hearing, council is not allowed to receive any new information. Any documents addressed to them regarding the asphalt plant will be immediately forwarded to staff.