Our Concerns
Traffic Concerns
Traffic is a major problem in Whistler – we all know that.
Everyone has experienced the weekend traffic nightmare in both winter and summer months. It can be impossible to turn right or left from Alta Lake Road on to Highway 99. The re-zoning, if approved, will overload the existing roads, increase traffic exponentially, and burden the existing neighbourhood with the addition of over 72 cars daily. Further, with young families in the area, specifically at The Residences at Nita Lake, the increased traffic will prove an unnecessary material hazard. Access from a different location on Alta Lake Rd. would mitigate this risk, and this solution is easily achieved.
This car dependent development promises to not only bring added traffic to Alta Lake Road and at the intersection of highway 99, but into local neighbourhoods causing safety concerns and contributing further to carbon emissions.
Whistler has NOT reached its emission targets in any of the years since its inception, yet the Council seems keen to approve a car dependent neighbourhood with NO bus service on the West Side.
The proposed development is not consistent with the OCP.
There will be 72 or more cars within this development on a daily basis.
The proposed development is not within comfortable walking distance to a transit stop: especially for 6 months of the year when snow and ice make walkways in neighbourhoods limited and difficult. The bus line along Alta Lake Road was so scarcely used, it was canceled. and there is no plan to re-instate the service.
The proposed development is car dependent: Sure, some days people will walk and cycle from this proposed development, let us be real and acknowledge that people will also be using their cars most days, especially the market townhomes. No one will be trudging from here to the ski hill, or back with groceries for a family of 4 or to use any shops, services or restaurants in the village.
The increased number of car trips is not consistent with the goals of Whistler to reduce carbon emissions. Let’s think more carefully how we will decrease our CO2 emissions NOT give approval to increase them.
The proposed development is not close community facilities, convenience goods and services and places of work.
The proposed development will result in additional traffic volumes and patterns and will exceed the service capacity of adjacent roadways. OCP clearly states that a new development should not negatively impact current neighbourhoods: Local bicycle, car, pedestrian traffic on Nita Lake Drive is already at capacity with serious safety concerns for all. The cars from this development would use the small and already congested neigbourhood road to have its 74 + cars for access, creating a major traffic thoroughfare from a small road that already has it’s challenges for parking and safety. And this is before even more cars gain access to a proposed park, and the riparian lands
The difficult exit from Alta Lake Road onto Highway 99 and the increased traffic on Highway 99, especially at peak times, pushes traffic along Alta Lake Road through the Alpine Meadows neighbourhood as a way of bypassing these traffic jams. Often now, as skiers leave Whistler for the day, they now try to avoid the back up of cars heading south and re-route their drive along Alta Lake road, only to add to the back up of cars attempting to enter highway 99 at Alta Lake Road. 72 cars will seriously impact an already maxed out road and intersection. We all recognize the limitations and safety issues along Alta Lake Road, a narrow road in need of repair with non-existent shoulders. These problems are only going to grow with time.
The Traffic Study and Report
The developer is required to provide a Traffic Study. In order to ensure the report provided favourable results for the developer, the study was done during the shoulder season on Wednesday, October 9, 2019.
The obvious concerns with this report are:
The date that data was collected. A mid-weekday in the “shoulder season” would not appear to reflect the high peak traffic demands experienced in the winter and summer months, especially weekends.
This data was then used to extrapolate the traffic conditions into the future which would not be an accurate projection.
The report does not take into account the large undeveloped parcels on Alta Lake Road that will also affect the traffic at Alta Lake Road and Highway 99 which includes the Prism Lands, the proposed undeveloped parcel at the south property line of 5298 Alta Lake Road which is reserved for future WHA development, the large parcel of land owned by a company of which councillor Duane Jackson is a director and officer, PID 025- 519-956 to the north of 5298 Alta Lake road and the possible re-development of the Tyrol Lodge lands.
Estimations of the number of car trips used. This is a car dependent neighbourhood If you live on the west side, you are car dependent and it is a pain to get anywhere.
The report does not take into account current and future bicycle and pedestrian traffic which council is promoting.
The safety concerns of traffic along Nita Lake Drive expressed by owners of the Residences at Nita Lake and the Nita Lake Estates have not been addressed and the contractor for the traffic report has provided no comment about the increased traffic, or the impact on Nita Lake Drive in relation to the proposed development as well as the yet to be developed WHA parcel and there is no discussion about the safety risks.
On March 5, 2020, the Planning Department wrote to the developer and stated “Staff have completed their review of the traffic study. Staff have similar concerns to those expressed by members of the public regarding the timing of the study during the shoulder season. Staff respectfully request a revised study during the peak season to reflect peak traffic in the affected area.” This request was refused by the developer due to costs. It is too bad the Developer is more concerned about his profits than the safety of Whistler residents. Anyone can see that the traffic report is flawed and was done to support the developer’s interests.
Do we know enough from the results of the Traffic Study to really confirm that this new development will not have significant impact of the owners along Nita Lake Drive and Alta Lake Road onto Rainbow Drive and those using those routes? Just remember the traffic congestion at Rainbow Park this summer!
Need for an Alternate Entrance for the 5298 Development
The original access to the Hillman property, which was the predecessor to the currently zoned development was from Alta Lake Road, not Nita Lake Drive. There are easements in place with an existing gravel road and bridge. Traffic and parking issues for users of Nita Lake Drive and access to Alta Lake Road have been well documented by the residents of this area. The original entrance make sense and is something the developer could easily make happen to limit the impact on existing residents and to be consistent with the OCP. This alternate access would also allow much needed access into the Tyrol Lodge. The developer has refused this request for access at the north end of the property. We are requesting council to make this happen. This will solve many of the safety concerns of the Residences at Nita Lake living on Nita Lake Drive.
Write to Council at corporate@whistler.ca and let them know that you are concerned about the increased traffic this proposed development will bring to Whistler and you support the separate access for this development off Alta Lake Drive.