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Whistler Housing now and later

WHA general manager Marla Zucht and WHA chair Gord McKeever chat with Andrew Mitchell

By Andrew Mitchell

The word that WHA principals Marla Zucht and Gord McKeever used to sum up the current state of affairs at the housing authority is “evolution”.

Since it was founded in 1997, the Whistler Housing Authority has been a work in progress. As the inventory of housing expanded and evolved, so did the policies that dictated how that inventory is built, sold and resold, all with the goal of housing 75 per cent of resort employees within Whistler’s boundaries.

Not only does business depend on creating beds for employees, so does Whistler’s sense of community — all the reasons people choose to live and work here, and evolve from freewheeling ski bums into engaged citizens, and from renters to property owners.

In response to its own evolution, the WHA is currently undergoing a thorough review of its policies and procedures — partly to catch up to the changing needs of the community and partly to be in a better position to embrace changes that are coming down the road in the form of new housing projects. That includes the Nita Lake development, the athletes’ village and Function Junction, as well as proposed projects in Rainbow, at the Shoestring Lodge site and alongside the Holborne development.

When it comes to making those changes, the WHA is looking for your opinions.

As part of the process for gathering these opinions, the WHA is holding a series of four roundtable discussions through September and October, that are open to everyone in the community with an interest in housing — people living in WHA units, people on the waitlist, and people who are one day hoping to buy into the Whistler dream.

Pique sat down with Zucht, the WHA general manager, and WHA chair McKeever, to discuss the current state of affairs at the WHA, and the need for community engagement as the WHA moves forward.

Pique : First of all, I was wondering if you could explain “standard charge terms,” which, as I understand it, is an umbrella term that seems to apply to a lot of different WHA policies.

Marla Zucht: Standard Charge Terms is a term synonymous with the housing covenants, and they basically outline the various restrictions that apply to the resident-restricted units, from the appreciation formula to rental restrictions, and the right of first refusal. They are available on the website for anyone who wants to look at them before the roundtable meetings.

Gord McKeever : It also defines what an employee and retiree is, what the eligibility requirements are for occupying a resident-restricted unit, and denies occupancy to anyone who is not a part of the Whistler workforce. They are the rules that everyone plays by.

Pique : Were either of you surprised by the initial public reaction to the WHA’s decision to change the appreciation formula for some units?

GM : The initial decision and council approval in December 2005 to use the Core Consumer Price Index as the new appreciation formula was actually well received. The decision to change to the CCPI was after quite an exhaustive process that involved the Whistler 2020 Resident Housing Task Force, a separate community stakeholder focus group that reviewed the existing formulas and recommended a new formula, and then further community consultation that recommended the change to the CCPI. When we got to the point where we had decided to use the CCPI as an index for new projects it was very well received. The controversy that arose was in response to the subsequent decision to apply the CCPI to existing projects.

MZ : There was some initial confusion that the move to the CCPI would apply to existing units prior to resale, which is not the case, the new standard charge terms, including the CCPI formula, do not get applied until after a home is sold. The WHA received a lot of calls and e-mails requesting clarification on this issue.

Pique : Is there a better understanding and acceptance now?

MZ : Right now we’re probably receiving more positive feedback at the WHA than negative from waitlist applicants and owners. I think community members recognize the need to go with the CCPI from an affordability perspective. There are still people who would like to remain with the Greater Vancouver HPI (Housing Price Index), and some owners under the HPI are concerned about the effect that switching to the CCPI might have on their eventual resales. But we’re getting a lot of positive feedback for the change as well, it’s just not as public. Hopefully at the roundtable discussions there will be a chance to have people share perspectives on both sides of the issue.

Pique : How do you keep the roundtable from becoming a debate about the CCPI decision and address other issues?

MZ : The roundtables are an opportunity to talk about a range of housing issues, and to get input on the resident housing policies and programs that will benefit the whole community. Resident housing is an amenity for our entire community that we should all be proud of, and if the program is not currently meeting some of our housing needs, then we want to hear how we can better meet those needs to help ensure that we retain the asset of employees that Whistler currently has. It is critical to maintaining a vibrant community and to achieving our goal of becoming the premier mountain resort community.

Pique : The last two municipal elections it seems people were screaming for more affordable housing, but now we’re in a completely new situation where (WHA) homes aren’t selling right away or are selling for less than the maximum resale value. At the same time market housing appears to be coming down, and the WHA’s inventory is poised to grow — how do you see the WHA’s role in providing employee housing changing?

GM : The first thing is that you have to look at the basic assumption behind the WHA, and the value of keeping 75 per cent of employees in the community. It’s a valid goal and is supported by the community, and we’re going to continue working towards that end.

Secondly, barring some drastic changes to market values, we will reach a place in the foreseeable future where only a few employees in the workforce will be based in market housing. We know our 75 per cent number puts us in the 10,000- to 11,000-bed zone while we currently have 4,000 beds, roughly, of resident housing. If the second assumption is correct we know we’ll eventually need 10,000 to 11,000 beds.

As for the slower uptake (of WHA homes) the issue is really two-fold. First of all it’s only affecting the units that appreciated in step with the Vancouver housing price index, which are escalating way beyond other units in price. The second part is that many people are waiting in anticipation of other units coming on board, and they’re not buying anything else in the meantime.

MZ : All of the new housing coming on will be attached to the CCPI, and (people) are still expressing a lot of excitement about the impending new units. Smaller units in the inventory are still selling at maximum price, it’s just the larger, more expensive units where we’re seeing offers coming in at below the maximum asking price. When you start to look at places in the $350,000 to $400,000 range people have other housing options they could also be considering — including occupancy restricted or market housing for some people, and larger homes in Pemberton and Squamish.

Pique : Is there a chance that we could build too much inventory, given the number of new projects we’re seeing?

MZ : There is still strong demand from the waitlist and it continues to grow. We are being cautious with all the additional product coming on, which is why we’re only focusing on existing projects in the pipeline right now and we’re currently not looking for any additional resident housing opportunities at this time.

GM : The purchase waitlist has tripled over the last three years, from 200 to 600 people on the waitlist. That certainly doesn’t indicate any reduction in demand. In 2004 the Whistler 2020 Resident Housing Task Force identified a need to build 250 more units than were in the planning process at the time. That was the impetus that led to the Rainbow neighbourhood development.

We knew there was a unique opportunity with the Olympics to introduce a significant amount of housing, but that’s not in our hands until 2010 and a half. That was too long to wait for new product. What was already planned prior to that wasn’t deemed sufficient to meet demands.

Part of the large amount of housing we’re seeing come on board is a product of unique opportunities and timing.

Pique : What kinds of issues do you expect to address at roundtable discussions, other than Standard Charge Terms?

MZ : Opportunities for more community engagement and how we can better engage the community when making decisions; ownership restrictions; the waitlist process; eligibility requirements, and WHA governance.

GM : We’re in the process of doing a 360- degree review of the WHA. That is expressly council’s direction as well, they’ve encouraged us to do that. We’re looking for ways we can tune the WHA up before we get hit with Rainbow, the athletes’ village, Cressey, Holborne, Lakecrest, Nita Lake Lodge, and Function Junction. There is an opportunity here for significant growth that will place additional demands on the WHA. We’re doing a bow to stern tune-up in anticipation of that growth.

Pique : What are some of the main concerns you’re hearing from the public that would make a review necessary?

GM : The standard charge terms is a passionate issue for a number of people, particularly residents of Bear Ridge and 19 Mile.

MZ : The larger issue, even more than that, was informing people, connecting to the community and really educating and engaging the community about the changes. In hindsight, we could have done a better job from the beginning involving people in the discussion to make sure they weren’t taken by surprise and were more involved in the original discussion.

GM : Community engagement is probably our best opportunity to make changes, to review, to increase stakeholder engagement.

Pique : What steps would you take to improve communication and accessibility?

MZ : We’re trying to create a range of engagement opportunities with the community, such as the roundtable meetings, meeting with strata owners, and making better use of our website. We’re also looking at a newsletter for residents and people on the list, maybe a few media ads, as a way to reach out. We’ve also created a new position on the board for a resident housing representative, which is a new step for the WHA.

GM : The website is certainly a central tool for our strategy, we’re going to make it more relevant, dynamic and current. It’s also an opportunity to tell our housing story, which is actually a very good news story. At the same time we want to stay in touch with our base, tell them about our situation, the challenges we have, the successes we have. We’ve spent so much time and resources to find a way to keep this place affordable and have had a lot of success so far.

Pique : Is the WHA active in trying to get the property transfer tax thresholds adjusted so they’re more realistic in terms of the market? I recently bought into employee housing, and that came as a bit of a shock.

MZ : That is an issue that we’ve identified as negatively affecting affordability for first time home buyers. I was involved in a CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Commission) discussion a few months ago, and council in Squamish has written a letter to the province about the discrepancy between property values and transfer taxes. Our council has given their support to the Squamish Council for their request to the province to re-examine the threshold for the exemption to the property transfer tax (PTT). We’ve received a letter from the Minister of Finance indicating that PTT thresholds will be revisited during the preparation of the province’s 2007 Budget.

Pique : One of the WHA’s goals is housing 75 per cent of employees. Where are we now in terms of reaching that number?

MZ : We’re above that right now at 76 per cent. We’ve just sent out our annual employer housing survey, which local businesses should be receiving from our consultant, if they haven’t got the survey already, and we should have the numbers compiled in the next few months. Last year we were at 76 per cent, so we’re still above our goal.

GM : We’re not concerned that we’ll fail to hit our goal, we’re more afraid that we’ll hit it from the other side — if we go to 75 per cent then we’re dropping and we’ll want to know why.

You also said that one of our goals is to house 75 per cent of employees, but that’s not one of our goals, it’s our central goal. Keeping three quarters of our workforce living in Whistler is the driving force behind the WHA.

Pique : You talk to some employers and they say we need more rental properties, but a lot of the focus of new developments is on residential properties. There should be a few rental units in the athletes’ village, but is there more rental housing on the way in the future?

MZ : First and foremost the objective is keeping community vitality, vibrancy, and sustainability. That said, Rainbow should have a small portion (of rental housing) as well as the athletes’ village. But over the last three or four years, ownership has been a strong focus because that’s what has been in demand for the people on the waitlist. While we do have a rental waitlist as well, we currently only have 49 applicants on it, compared to 536 on the purchase waitlist. Ownership units help to create a sense of ownership, and help people to put roots down in our community.

That’s not to say we won’t be looking at rental again in the future, because we definitely will.

GM : We know our locally based workforce in the last few years has been relatively stable in the 10,000 zone, and any resident housing initiatives provide a pressure relief throughout the spectrum of resident housing options. More single-family homes in Rainbow will have an effect further down the housing chain in the availability of units. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to encourage the development of more rental housing. The balance of rental and owner units is essential to the WHA business plan. The WHA is not funded in any way by property taxes or other general revenue. All of our operational funding comes from revenue from the rental program.

MZ : Additional ownership units will create more administration requirements, therefore more rental revenue will help to offset those costs.

Pique : How involved is the WHA in creating a seniors centre or housing project in Whistler, and where are we with that?

GM : We’ve worked closely with MAC (Mature Action Committee) and recently partnered to create a memorandum of understanding that would see joint coordination in the creation and administration of future seniors housing. We created a (WHA) board seat for MAC about a year and a half ago, similar to the board seat we created for a resident housing representative, and we’re proceeding with great input from the MAC rep Gord Leidal.

MZ : We’ve also fought hard to have seniors in Rainbow, and in Holborne the resident housing is exclusively for seniors. It’s been identified as a real priority for Whistler, to come up with ways to allow community members to age in place.

Pique : Any final words about the WHA or the roundtable discussions?

GM : I think we have a very unique opportunity here to significantly increase the resident housing supply in the community. It’s very exciting to be able to participate in bringing that around.

There’s a powerful will at WHA to implement better governance practices, with more openness, inclusiveness, and transparency. As I said before, we’re doing a 360-degree review in how we operate our policies and procedures. I just came from a board meeting today (Monday) when half the meeting was focused on stakeholder engagement, identifying the various stakeholders and determining how we can establish more effective feedback loops, letting people know what we’re doing, and modifying that balance by their input.

MZ : I would encourage people to get involved and to express their opinions to help the WHA make effective and informed decisions.

The WHA is charting new ground, many resort communities base their housing models on ours, but we’re still learning with everything we do. Every resident housing development evolves by evaluating and learning from previous developments (i.e, considerable more storage at Bear Ridge), and our policies are evolving as well. Creating housing and housing policies for our community is an evolution and we need to continue to change, otherwise we could get complacent and be saddled with ineffective outdated policies. We need to respect that things will change, and embrace that.

Roundtable discussions

The first of four community roundtable discussions on the WHA took place on Wednesday, Sept. 13. The remaining three meetings will take place on the following dates:

• Thursday, Sept. 21, noon to 1:30 p.m., Municipal Hall, Flute Room

• Saturday, Sept. 30, 10:30 a.m. to noon, Millennium Place Multipurpose Room

• Tuesday, Oct. 3, 7 to 8:30 p.m., Myrtle Philip Community School Lounge



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