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Waitlisters turn out for Rainbow presentation

Development scheduled to deliver 350 units, mostly residential housing

For the past four years Emily Ng has been waiting for her number to come up on the Whistler Housing Authority waitlist.

When she applied in 2001 to buy a price restricted home in Whistler she was number 170, or thereabouts, on the ever-growing list.

It’s taken four years to move up 150 spots and now the end is almost in sight as she bides her time at number 36 on the master list – a list that topped the 500-mark roughly one month ago.

That’s just one of the reasons Ng was at Monday’s council meeting to hear about the new housing development on the Rainbow lands between Alpine Meadows and Emerald Estates. She was one of several people on the waitlist who were in the audience on Monday night, proof enough there is a pent up demand for employee housing in the resort.

"Ideally with Rainbow going through I would love a single family home," she said, the day after the council presentation. "If I could get into one of those I’d be super stoked."

Her chances aren’t bad.

Developers of the Rainbow lands are planning to deliver more than 350 units on the 45-acre site, which is arguably some of the valley’s best real estate.

Its south facing sunny aspects, gently sloping land, views over Green Lake and towards Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains and its proximity to the village make it a prime development site.

And best of all for Ng, and the hundreds of others like her on the WHA waitlist, the development will be 85 per cent resident housing.

Specifically there will be 70 single-family homes, 44 duplexes, 32 fourplexes, 50 multi-family, 20 seniors rental units, and 20 seniors units for purchase. All of those will be employee and price restricted.

To make it all work, the developers want to build some market units – 35 single-family units and 16 multi-family units to be exact. Though the market homes will be bigger than the resident-restricted units, the goal is to make them all blend in together as one community.

The fact that it will be a predominantly locals community just makes the development all the more attractive, said Ng.

"There’s a really good sense when you can walk down your street and say hello to all your neighbours and know who they are," she added.

There was a good sense from Monday’s council meeting too that council is keen to see this project move forward, though there are still a few outstanding concerns.

"I think the direction we’re going in is positive," said Councillor Ken Melamed.

Among the concerns, however, is the need for the developers to work out how the site will be serviced with sewer and water hook ups.

Whistler’s water system is designed for a community of 55,500 bed units. This development would go beyond that. Bed units are Whistler’s means of measuring development. The municipality has, for all intents and purposes, capped development at the 55,500 mark.

Local planner Brent Harley, who presented the development proposal to council on Monday night, said they have done some drilling and have found water on the site.

They are also investigating a self-sufficient wastewater treatment plant because there isn’t enough capacity available in the municipal sewer system.

Another council concern, which has yet to be resolved, is the developers’ request to build a large commercial core at the heart of the development. They would like to build 20,000 square feet of commercial space.

"We’re close to having that rationale in place," said Harley.

Council, from the early days when they envisioned this development, imagined a much smaller commercial component, in the 5,000 square foot realm.

Whatever its size, the commercial core will sit at the heart of the Rainbow project, along with the seniors housing units.

Dotted throughout the development will be parks and green space with easy access to the nearby biking and hiking trails. More than a quarter of the 45 acres will be left as open space.

The idea is to make the neighbourhood a "walk more" community; the parking for the single-family homes will be underground.

Also proposed on site are a gas station, a bus loop, a fire hall, a neighbourhood pub, and a day care centre.

Councillor Marianne Wade said as the project moves ahead she would like to get a better understanding and a clear analysis of the demand for the housing.

A housing needs analysis is in the works, which is slated to tell the municipality, as best it can, what the demand for housing will be like in the future.

One other component of the project is the developers need more bed units in order to develop on site.

Where those bed units come from remains to be seen; either they are created from scratch if the community decides the amenities warrant that, or they are transferred from existing sites. For example, the Holborn Group wants to redevelop and rezone the tennis club lands without maximizing all the bed units on the site. Those extra units could go to the Rainbow development.

"My objective is to reduce the number of bed units that may have to be created if that’s the road we go down," said Melamed. "I’m not interested in creating new bed units."

Councillor Kristi Wells, in her final comments, also noted that council should be aware that a project of this scale could impact the proposed resident housing neighbourhood in the athletes village. After the Olympics, the athletes village is also planned to deliver an employee housing community.

In the meantime the waitlist for housing is growing by the week. Just one month ago it topped the 500 mark, the highest it’s ever been.

And after waiting for four years, Ng for one is excited the Rainbow development may be moving forward.

Ng said: "I’d be very happy if it went ahead.

"(I’m) pretty excited to have the opportunity to live in a beautiful place and have a home."

The municipality will be scheduling a public open house on the Rainbow development in the weeks to come.

The project could be at the public hearing stage by the end of the summer.