Whistler backs off on parking fee
WHISTLER, B.C.—Faced with hostile community reaction, Whistler's municipal council has backed off plans to begin charging for parking at the conference center pending further study.
However, as one advisor told the council, no parking is truly free. Either users pay or it is subsidized. That same expert told the councilors that correctly priced parking fees at the town's four primary parking areas should result in those lots being 85 percent full. The municipality hopes to gain $2.8 million in revenue annually, enough to pay for fire department operations.
Breck develops new 'McMansion' law
BRECKENRIDGE, Colo.—Breckenridge town officials have returned with plans that they hope will prevent the spread of so-called McMansions. The new proposal, reports the Summit Daily News, would allow homes of 4,000 square feet to 9,000 square feet, depending upon the subdivision, plus 900-square-foot garages. Precise home sizes would depend upon the lot size.
Aspen buildings get 'smart' meters
ASPEN, Colo.—Aspen has taken the first steps to installing a so-called smart grid. More than 200 meters have been installed in buildings, mostly in an affordable housing complex called Burlingame Ranch.
The meters communicate information about how much energy a person is using and when, helping the consumer figure out how to most efficiently use the electricity. A smart-grid infrastructure also improves efficiencies in countless other ways that do not necessarily require human decision-making.
The city hopes to land a federal grant to expand the metering program, reports The Aspen Times. Two-thirds of Aspen residents are customers of the city's utility department. Smart meters are also being installed to help the city's 3,700 water customers understand their water consumption.
Vail half way to energy use goal
VAIL, Colo.—Last year, Vail Resorts chief executive officer Rob Katz announced a goal of reducing energy use at the company's five ski areas and other properties by 10 percent within two years. This week, he announced the company is more than half way there. The company had been spending $25 million for energy per year, notes the Vail Daily.
Katz now has announced another goal, eliminating non-essential use of paper. The company spends close to $1 million per year on paper, printing and related expenses. Employees will be asked to identify things they need to print versus things they want to print, explains the Daily.
Mammoth debates public art
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. — What is art? Polemicists have been asking that for ages. But in Mammoth Lakes, the question du jour is "What is public art?"
The Sheet, a local newspaper, reports that town regulations require developments to provide public art or an in-lieu fee to be used to create public art elsewhere. One developer paid into the fund, but then applied for a rebate, arguing that a waterway that flows through the housing development had been configured in such a way as to constitute art.
While art may be in the eye of the beholder, as some have argued, the second question was whether the public had access to it? After all, the water feature, to use the parlance of developers and landscape designers, is on private land and cannot be accessed except by crossing private land.
The town council decided the landscaping was art and public at that, and rebated the developer $138,000 in fees. But the newspaper was more skeptical, alternatively calling the water feature "an irrigation ditch" and "yuppie landscaping."
Wal-Mart, Target skip bag contest
SILVERTHORNE, Colo.—The plastic-bag competition among ski towns and valleys sponsored by the Colorado Association of Ski Towns is more than two-thirds complete. Early in the contest, two areas—Basalt and Winter Park-Granby—were ahead in this effort to nudge consumers to forsake new plastic bags for every trip to the store in favor of reusing bags.
In Summit County, a variety of stores in Summit County agreed to participate, but organizers tell the Summit Daily News that the two biggest stores, Target and Wal-Mart, declined.
Whistler faces skilled labor shortage
WHISTLER, B.C.—Two years ago, Whistler—and all of British Columbia—wondered where it would get some good labor. The oil fields of Alberta beckoned, offering high wages, and everybody from craftsmen to wait staff were in short supply.
This has changed. Unemployment is at 8 percent. Many merchants fear that hosting the Olympics in February will deaden, rather than boost, business.
Even so, reports Pique Newsmagazine, local economic development officials call for loosened restrictions on imported labor from Korea, Japan and New Zealand, but also the United Kingdom. It already has a program that allows Australian workers for a two-year term.
According to chamber official Fiona Famulak, despite the short-term unemployment, the most important numbers have to do with Canada's aging population and its declining birth rate.
"We are going to face a skill shortage, perhaps not now, but in the future, so we need to be ready to face those shortages," Famulak said.
