Pemberton officials are
looking into getting a process in place to zone for temporary housing and
parking.
“There has been recognition
in response to Olympic issues, more than anything else, that there are going to
be temporary use requests,” said Pemberton mayor Jordan Sturdy.
Following a meeting last
week, municipal staff are looking into allowing temporary use in the town’s
industrial park.
Sturdy said a variety of
issues need to be resolved, but the plan is to have a process in place that
could fast-track a temporary structure application.
The industrial site is both
serviced and flat, lending itself well to temporary structures. Temporary
houses and parking would also have less of an impact on the industrial site
than other areas of the village.
After a process has been
developed for the industrial park, the municipality could look at a second
process that would apply to the village core.
“If we were to extend a
temporary use process, we would look at how we would change that process to
take into consideration the more public aspect of the village core,” he said.
According to Sturdy, these
discussions are not in response to a specific temporary housing proposal.
“We are just trying to
position the village in a way that allows us to be responsive and timely in our
decision making, and not having to go, ‘Oh my god, what do we do about this? We
haven’t thought about that one’, because we recognize that temporary uses, by
their nature, will probably be just-in-time kind of proposals.”
Ralph Forsyth, co-chair of
the Whistler H.O.M.E. committee, said the H.O.M.E. group has not yet proposed
setting up their neighbourhood of temporary modular homes in Pemberton.
“We had thought that
Pemberton might be the solution,” he said.
“There is space up there that
I think would be able to do it… but we have not approached anyone up there.”