News and Views

A Whistler mayoral candidate has raised concerns about the continued construction of second homes, mostly for Vancouverites. Absentee homeowners and so-called "monster" houses are pushing Whistler's limited bed capacity and forcing its resident workers out. The disparity is raising the price of real estate for Whistler's middle-class residents, forcing workers and families "down valley" to the bedroom communities of Pemberton and Squamish.

As Whistler prepares itself for the 2010 Winter Olympics, important decisions on this issue will undoubtedly be made. The November 19 municipal election will pit two front-runners with differing viewpoints on housing and residency, Ken Melamed and Ted Nebbeling, against one another in the race for mayor.

Mayoral hopeful Melamed, who sat on council for nine years, told the Georgia Straight that resort development has taken precedence over environmental protection.

"Whistler has exceeded its environmental footprint," said Melamed, who has lived in the resort since 1975. "These vacation homes are out of balance with the rest of Whistler's real-estate mix."

"We can't deny the enormous tax base brought in by the second homes, especially since they use little infrastructure," he added. However, he said he does not want Whistler to become another Aspen, Colorado, where the locals have moved out, leaving only wealthy absentee homeowners.

Melamed's opponent Nebbeling, a former two-term Whistler mayor and ex-Liberal MLA, is seen by many as pro-development and has not yet addressed second homes during his campaign. "When Whistler was first conceived in the early '70s, it was people living in West Vancouver who bought into the resort idea and bought land," Nebbeling said during an interview in Whistler. "They made the resort what it is today." He estimated that second homes generate 72 percent of Whistler's tax revenue.

Indeed, Whistler's 2003/04 Whistler Resort Community Monitoring Report found that 72 percent of Whistler's property owners reside outside of Whistler. Long-time Whistler resident Stephen Vogler feels that absentee property owners and their divergent values are just a fact of life in resort towns. "When it comes to local elections, the concerns of second homeowners differ from those of residents," Vogler said. "Residents' concerns lean toward quality of life and community-building, while the second homeowners tend more towards property values. To be fair, some Vancouver second homeowners also have strong concerns about the environment and the quality of life."

A February 2005 report by Urban Futures, a Vancouver think tank, found that baby boomers are the primary buyers of vacation homes. More than one-fifth of B.C's population is composed of baby boomers aged 45 to 59 years of age. Business Week Online reported on October 24 that in the U.S., almost 77 million boomers would hit retirement age in the next two to three decades, and many of them may cast their eyes north in a search for a second or retirement home.

In the mid-1990s, the province ruled that British Columbians could only vote in one municipality. Whistler's then-mayor, Nebbeling, led the charge to reinstate the ability of property owners to vote in whichever municipalities they owned property in. Not only was the bid successful, but in one subsequent election a polling booth was set up in West Vancouver for second homeowners who found it too inconvenient to drive up to Whistler to cast their ballot.

This did not sit well with Vogler. "Spearheading this campaign may have helped Nebbeling win the mayoral race back then, but it did not do much for the community of Whistler or its full-time residents," he said.

Jamey Kramer, a snowboard instructor and hobby filmmaker, said he loves living in Whistler, despite the fact he lives below the poverty line in a town where chalets sell for $1.7 million and condos for $735,288. Kramer decided to run for council to "fight for his lifestyle". He said he has seen too many friends leave because they could no longer afford to live there.

"An economy should be run for the benefit of the majority, rather than for a small aristocratic class." Kramer told the Straight. "I would offer tax breaks to the local Whistler homeowner who rents out his basement to young, seasonal workers. Half of Whistler's homes sit empty while 500 long-time residents wait on the town's affordable-housing list."

Whistler's community monitoring program (done in 2003) estimated there were 9,480 permanent residents, 4,558 seasonal/part-time residents, and 9,100 second homeowners.

Sonya McCarthy, a 30-year resident and single mother of two, is also running for council. McCarthy told the Straight that "we have two types of second homeowners: those who live in the Lower Mainland who visit on weekends; they love Whistler as much as the permanent residents do and even retire in Whistler. Then there are owners who live out of province or country, whose homes remain vacant. I encourage them to build a suite and rent it to an employee. This would help our housing situation while providing absentee owners with added security and insurance liability."

Purchasing real estate in B.C.'s resorts has never been easier. In 2003, the provincial government established the B.C. Resort Task Force-with the mandate to promote resort development through the identification and elimination of barriers to investment, development, and expansion-to double B.C.'s tourism figures by 2013. The removal of red tape has helped to fast-track the conversion of Crown land into exclusive fishing lodges and ski lodges.

A 2004 report by Lloyd Levy Consulting for Colorado's mountain economy found that "jobs attributable to second homes generated a larger share of jobs than from winter and summer visitors combined." Melamed told the Straight that a second home in Whistler requires-given maintenance work, service-industry workers, ski instructors, etc.-a minimum of five dedicated staff to service. As the youth population ages, birth rates continue to decline, and the boomers retire, finding people to fill these positions will be more difficult.

Melamed helped champion Whistler's 2020 Comprehensive Sustainability Plan, a visionary blueprint for balancing the town's future environmental, economical, and social needs. He is adamant about maintaining Whistler's maximum total bed count-the number of pillows the resort can handle comfortably. Once the resort reaches 52,600 bed units, no additional housing can be created.

The Whistler Housing Association, which represents Whistler's resident work force, hopes to expand its inventory of beds restricted to employee residents from its 2003-04 number of 3,973 to 4,800 by 2005, so that 75 percent of the local workforce can live in Whistler.