From Growth Machine to Growth Management: The Dynamics of Resort Development in Whistler, British Columbia

Abstract

In North America, competition for land in urban localities has often been considered as driven by growth machines (Logan and Molotch, 1987;Molotch, 1976;. According to this concept, those who stand to gain directly as landowners, speculators, or investors form local growth coalitions with service providers (such as realtors, bankers, and local media) to promote overall growth (Canan and Hennessy, 1989). These local growth elites play a major role in supporting local politicians, who also view growth as a key function of local government. As Logan and Molotch (1987) point out, the political autonomy of place and the land-use planning power this entails provides a key institutional underpinning which supports the growth machine. However, this power results in the uneven distribution of growth benefits within the community (Green, 1995).In response to global economic and political restructuring, local economic development has now become the arena for many development decisions at the local level. This has led to increased place competition between localities and the emergence of various forms of coalition (Cox and Mair, 1988;Keating, 1993), including public^privatesector partnerships (Jacobs, 1995;Pierre, 1995), to enhance growth opportunities. At the same time, public participation in planning has become accepted practice, offering a formal arena for public input into development processes. Under these changed circumstances growth machines are undergoing transformation (Molotch, 1993), as economic imperatives in land-use decisionmaking are moderated by social and environmental considerations. In recent years, the inequitable benefits of unbridled urban growth have been challenged in some places with the introduction of growth-management practices which offer a`guidance system' to implement a desirable community vision by attempting to capture the benefits of growth while mitigating the consequences (Chapin and Kaiser, 1979). Here, local residents gain influence as a new governance structure is established and services and infrastructure required by local residents emerge.This purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the concepts of the growth machine and growth management apply (and are extended by this application) to resort settings

Site‐specific encounters, norms and crowding of summer visitors at alpine ski areas

“…T ourism and recreation at mountain resorts such as Vail (USA), Chamonix (France), and Whistler (Canada) have received considerable attention in the literature (Gill and Hartmann, 1992;Klenosky et al, 1993;Gill and Williams, 1994;Hudson and Shephard, 1998;Gill, 2000;Godde et al, 2000). Alpine ski areas (e.g.…”

The politics of local economic development in Canada's city-regions: New dependencies, new deals, and a new politics of scale

“…As we shall see, a struggle existed between the role of urban government at this time between, on the one hand, government as a facilitator of growth machines of economic development and, on the other hand, government as an actor in a more conciliatory growth management regime (see for example, Gill, 2000). While these reform movements tended to place great emphasis on areas of reproduction (like quality of life issues), the ones that tended to dominate city hall did not see them as separate issues from local economic development.…”

Social capital as a heuristic device to explore sociocultural sustainability: a case study of mountain resort tourism in the community of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, USA

“…In particular, the growth of the ski industry and its expansion into real estate development has led to rising real estate values, as the creation of ski resorts and accompanying amenities has made these communities increasingly desirable places to live and visit. This pro-growth approach to ski resort development and governance throughout North America (Gill, 2000;Gill & Williams, 2011) has resulted in increased competition for real estate, placing further pressure on already limited housing stock in what are typically spatially confined alpine environments (Gill & Williams, 1994). This has raised rental and ownership prices beyond the affordability of local residents, with those who are unable to keep up with rising costs forced to move elsewhere or down-valley into adjacent "bedroom" communities, from which workers travel to and from the resort area (Clark, 2006).…”