Another 48 employee housing units will soon be under construction in Cheakamus Crossing Phase 2.
On May 2, the Resort Municipality of Whistler’s (RMOW) mayor and council approved a development permit and related bylaw amendments for the Whistler 2020 Development Corporation (WDC) to start work on a new $19.5-million, four-storey building at 1450 Mount Fee Road.
Mayor Jack Crompton believes the project will provide much-needed rental accommodation, and is pleased with its pace of development, which is commencing immediately after the first two buildings in Phase 2 finished earlier this year.
“This kind of pace needs to be typical of the way we build housing here: we need to build more; we need to build it faster,” Crompton said. “I’m enthusiastic about the work of our staff, the work of the WDC, [and] the Whistler Valley Housing Society to get housing built for people.”
Once completed, the rental building will provide four studio apartments, 28 one-bedroom and 16 two-bed units, and will take a significant bite out of the current Whistler Housing Authority (WHA) rental waitlist. With nearly 500 people on the list, the average wait time for a WHA rental is 3.4 years for a two-bedroom apartment, 4.4 years for a one-bedroom apartment, and 2.2 years for a studio.
The WDC plans to start laying the foundation of the building within the next month, and expects construction to finish by December 2024, with people able to move in shortly after in early 2025.
The building will be similar in design to the neighbouring 1400 Mount Fee building, with the most significant difference being an extra storey and 18 more rental units. It will also be built to the highest Step Code requirements in the province.
“The building design was established considering the original intent of the zoning that was adopted in 2021, as well as natural characteristics of the site, such as topography, solar access and existing natural features,” RMOW planner Louis-Felix T. Renaud said in a presentation to council.
Community park delayed
Residents will have to wait a little longer for the Cheakamus Crossing Phase 2 neighbourhood park planned for the parcel of land adjacent to Lot 2B and Lot 3.
The new park was promised in a park improvement agreement signed between the RMOW and WDC when the municipality approved the lot’s zoning in 2021. The agreement required the WDC to construct the amenity following occupancy of the first two buildings on Lot 1.
However, the WDC requested to wait until the building on 1450 Mount Fee Rd. and the adjacent developments on Lots 3 and 5 finish to allow workers to use the area while construction is underway. In the interim, the RMOW will continue working on designing the park.
The WDC’s preliminary timeline sets the estimated completion date for construction of the Lot 5 (1475 Mount Fee Rd.) building at the end of 2025, so the park won’t be completed for two to three years, and will end up being one of the final projects in the Phase 2 development.
On May 2, mayor and council voted to delay the park’s creation, citing the need to speed up the construction of employee housing and keep the area safer while building is underway on neighbouring lots.
“I’ll be supporting this recommendation. I think that it allows for expediting the process of construction, and I think ultimately it may find some small savings to our process to actually use this site to support the construction on Lots 2, 3 and 5,” Crompton said. “We’ve got to move fast on housing, and I think this helps us do that.”
