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Zen and the art of mixed messages

An inquiry into values

John Zen thought he was doing something for the community last year when he asked the Whistler Housing Authority what type of employee housing it needed and came up with a development proposal for more than 800 rental units. But as his proposal was being massaged and working its way through municipal hall the goal posts moved. The municipality decided it didn’t want any development on his land and that it may have enough housing already. Now part of his property is being down-zoned to ensure he doesn’t build on it.

On Monday night this week Tim Regan was also "Zenned."

For the past year Regan has been working on a three-part development project that involved rezoning for trophy homes on lands in Whistler Cay and White Gold and approximately 470 rental employee bed units on the Cheakamus North site, between Millar’s Pond and Spring Creek.

Regan’s Whistler Three Comprehensive Development Strategy was before council Monday to determine if there was enough support to take the project to the public for input. There wasn’t.

Despite the fact Regan, like Zen, had shaped his project from the beginning with the encouragement and input of the Whistler Housing Authority, municipal staff and council, when it came time to go public council turned thumbs down. In fact, some questioned whether Whistler even needs the additional employee housing proposed.

"There are consequences to building more employee housing," Mayor Hugh O’Reilly said.

There is an assumption that employee housing is needed by people in the service industry, O’Reilly added, but there are more and more businesses coming to town which are not tourism related and their employees are helping drive the demand for employee housing. "I never thought of us as delivering all the employee housing," O’Reilly said.

A municipal staff report on the Whistler Three project also questioned the need for more employee housing. Quoting from the Whistler Housing Authority’s Overview 2000, the report states: "Of the 1,100 additional employee beds that will be required to meet (the goal of housing 80 per cent of Whistler’s workforce within municipal boundaries at buildout, with one in three of those individuals living in resident restricted homes), 900 are already underway."

And two and a half months ago, in a letter to Zen regarding his proposal, O’Reilly wrote: "… although we appreciate your interest in developing employee housing, we have other initiatives underway that will provide a resolution of the employee housing situation currently facing the community."

The idea that Whistler’s employee housing situation is well in hand is not shared by Rick Staehli, general manager of the Whistler Housing Authority.

"I’m not sure where they’re coming from or where they’re going," Staehli said Tuesday. "I’m not sure if there’s a hidden agenda… or what. It’s unfortunate it’s going to come down to a pissing contest again."

Staehli attempted to tell council during Monday’s meeting that the WHA report quoted by staff referred to for-purchase employee housing. Staehli says "at a bare minimum," another 900 rental employee beds are needed between now and the time the resort reaches buildout.

"We’ve been consistent in our research and facts," Staehli said prior to Monday’s meeting. "We’ve been working with outside developers for the last year and a half. We were thrilled to see two projects come forward. They both had problems but they were both viable."

O’Reilly was asked after Monday’s meeting if, in light of the fact both Regan and Zen had developed their proposals in consultation with the housing authority, there wasn’t a need for better communication between the WHA and municipal staff.

"I think if there’s an issue it’s that the housing authority has a singular job; we have to look at a bigger picture," O’Reilly said.

"The question is what do we need (in the way of employee housing) now and in the future. There are options out there. I don’t think the housing authority has figured out exactly how much housing is needed."

On Tuesday, Staehli was blunt in his response.

"There are no other options.

"There isn’t a single parcel in this valley that hasn’t got warts, and the biggest warts are the property owners don’t want to do employee housing," Staehli said.

He added that he can’t see any private property owner stepping forward after Zen and Regan have been denied.

"It all comes down to land and willing owners, and you don’t entice owners with threats," Staehli said.

The contrasting views of the housing authority and the municipality vis-a-vis the need for employee housing are not surprising, to some. Sharon Jensen, a former municipal planner who is now a private consultant and presented Regan’s Whistler Three proposal to council Monday, said there has been a rivalry between some municipal staff and the housing authority for some time. Moreover, while the housing authority has a single, specific mandate and must be creative in how it fulfills that mandate, municipal staff must weigh each proposal against the various principles and priorities established by council. It was also suggested there’s more of a closed loop of ideas at municipal hall.

Regan was dumbfounded after council voted 3-2 to not send his project to an open house Monday.

"Never in a million years did I think this would happen," he said.

Part of the reason he was in shock was that from the beginning, a year and a half ago, he had worked closely with the housing authority in developing his proposal.

"I never would have bought the Cheakamus North lands if I didn’t think it had the support of council and staff," Regan said.

In fact, he says, last fall he paid $2.5 million for Cheakamus North at the suggestion of the housing authority, which in 2000 included Councillors Kristi Wells, Dave Kirk and Ted Milner and municipal administrator Jim Godfrey on its board of directors. Other members of council and municipal staff saw the Whistler Three and Zen proposals several times last fall in workshops. Only Wells, chair of the WHA board, supported the project Monday.

"It was quite clear from the beginning it would be a public-private partnership," Staehli said of Regan and Whistler Three. "He said up front he didn’t want a fight, he was only going to do this if the municipality was supportive. If there truly was a concern he wanted to know early. He has every reason to be disappointed."

The tide turned on Whistler Three in January, Regan says. It was then that staff suggested he swap the White Gold parcel, known as Lost Lake Estates, and Cheakamus North, putting the employee housing in White Gold. Regan refused because it didn’t make economic sense for him. From that point until Monday night’s defeat, he said, has been three months of complete frustration.

"I’m glad it’s over. It brings closure," Regan said.

Uncertainty about the demand for employee housing wasn’t the only reason the Whistler Three and Zen proposals were turned down; the impact of the two projects on the environment were also at issue. On Monday most council members echoed municipal staff’s concerns with Regan’s project – primarily that the Whistler Cay development, known as The Grove, would have a significant impact on an alluvial forest and was on a 200 year flood plain. As well, there were concerns development on the Cheakamus North site would be highly visible, in particular, development proposed for the knoll in the middle of the site.

"It’s an ambitious project with risks," Milner said Monday. "I think what is proposed here is too ambitious. I think there are other options, and I will make a motion to send this back to the developer."

"It’s difficult, as a member of the housing board, to sit here and say this project is not ready to proceed," Kirk said. "But the compromises and the unknowns are too great."

Wells noted a WHA survey showed Whistler was short 600 employee beds this past winter and everyone felt the impact. "We don’t have any more financial resources (for employee housing), we have to move to public-private partnerships," she said. "And what land is available? We’ve inventoried the whole valley, we’ve tried thinking outside the box. There just aren’t a lot of options."

Councillor Nick Davies felt the public may have misconceptions about how council acted on the Zen lands. He said the Zen proposal prompted him to do an informal survey of at least 50 people with the question: Should Whistler compromise its environmental values for employee housing? The answer was a resounding "no."

"That means either a limit on the amount of employee housing or we have to find other sites," Davies said.

However, both the Zen and Whistler Three projects have existing development rights, which means there will be some compromise of the environmentally-sensitive sites – unless they are down-zoned. Regan suggested following Monday’s council meeting there was no reason he shouldn’t go in to The Grove site and build the two large homes that the current zoning allows right in the middle of the alluvial forest.

"It’s the best land on the site for houses," he said.



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