West Vancouver is working on a "pretty novel" plan to build below-market housing, and is turning to Whistler for inspiration on making housing affordable for people who work in the community.

Whistler has been building its own housing for people who work in the resort town for more than two decades, with the rental and purchase of those units overseen by the Whistler Housing Authority.

"To look around this province and not see more communities doing the same thing is a little surprising at times," said Whistler Mayor Jack Crompton about the the town's strategy.

In West Vancouver, that's exactly what they're starting to do.

The municipality is planning to lease long term or sell the property at 22nd Avenue and Gordon Street, which it has owned since 2014, to develop into a special housing project.

The units will be rented out at 70 per cent of market rate and subsidized by 30 strata condominium units sold at market rate.

A new apartment complex in Whistler will be open in the summer of 2019 and go to people on the Whistler Housing Authority's waiting list. They'll pay hundreds of thousands less for the units than they would on the open market. (Tristan Le Rudulier/CBC)

'No direct cost to the taxpayer'

"We specifically considered and looked at the Whistler model when we were determining what we were going to do with that land," said West Vancouver Mayor Mary-Ann Booth.

"The idea is that we would be able to operate the rental units with no direct cost to the taxpayer," she told Stephen Quinn, host of CBC's The Early Edition.

Building municipal-owned affordable housing is fairly new to West Vancouver.

"This is a pretty novel idea," Booth said. She said a third-party developer would build the units on the property currently owned by the district.

"We've got a couple of projects that are in the pipe that aren't built yet, but this is the first one that's on district land that we control and that we're going to ultimately own."

The proposal is now going before the community for public consultation.

West Vancouver bought the land at 22nd Avenue and Gordon Street in 2014 for $16 million. (Google Maps/screenshot )

Declining population

Booth expressed concern at the diminishing population of the municipality, particularly the low numbers of young professionals and young families.

Only about a quarter of people who work in West Vancouver also live there, she said.

The new housing project would be aimed at people with "moderate income" — people like teachers, firefighters and police officers who work in West Vancouver but can't afford the housing costs.

The affordable housing plan isn't as extensive as Whistler's yet but, Booth said, it's a step in the right direction.

"We couldn't do everything in one project but it's something that I would definitely like to see and consider for the future depending on how this one goes," she said.