Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 16/01) - A public outcry has forced the city of Yellowknife to rethink its plan to build a boardwalk on Latham Island.

At a public meeting Wednesday night, some Latham Island residents attacked the city's plan to build the 150-metre boardwalk on the lower part of Back Bay between the end of Otto Drive and Lessard Drive.

"I'm pissed off about this," said Penny Johnson during the meeting. She lives at 16 Morrison Drive. The boardwalk will go past her back window.

Around 30 citizens crammed into the city's lower boardroom and peppered Monte Christensen, lands manager, and Dave Jones, city planner, with questions and criticism.

According to city maps, four residents along the proposed boardwalk site have private docks extending into the water. If a boardwalk is put in, residents would eventually lose their docks.

"The docks will be phased out," Jones told the residents.

Only one of the residents has a legal right to a dock through a lease.

The rest are squatting, said Jones.

Johnson wants to pay for her right to have a dock and complained that Morrison Drive residents above Otto Drive have new leases granting them access to the waterfront.

"Why do some residents get special treatment over others?" asked Johnson.

"We have historical rights," said the 20-year Yellowknife resident.

In 1996 city council placed a lease freeze along that waterfront until the completion of a waterfront strategy. In February the city lifted the freeze after council approved the strategy. The city renewed some of the leases along the water, but not in the proposed boardwalk area.

Since the city ownes the land it can choose which parts of it wants to use, said Jones in separate interview.

Christenson said the waterfront strategy will untangle the ownership mess along the Back Bay waterfront and grant the greater Yellowknife public access to the water along that shore.

The boardwalk plan is phase 6 of the city's waterfront development strategy and the easiest for the city to build at the moment.

Council said it wanted the whole plan implemented by 2010, but much of the land the proposed 14-kilometre trail runs through is still in the limbo of unsettled Akaitcho Treaty 8 land claims.

Jones said the city has clear use of the boardwalk site.

The clear legal right didn't hold weight with citizens who on Wednesday insisted the city scrap the boardwalk, claiming the land is full of bugs and more public access will cause vandalism on their property as well as destroy bird habitat.

It was this resistance that led Jones to commit to having the city come up with another option.

"We're going to draft another option without the boardwalk," said Jones. "Council will decide."

The city is also considering a float plane dock, and one or two public docks. A boardwalk connects both options.

Councillors Ben McDonald, Wendy Bisaro and Robert Hawkins attended the meeting.

Bisaro and McDonald said they would consider the resident's concerns.

Hawkins left before he could be interviewed but did pledge to inform residents when the issue goes before council.

McDonald said he wasn't surprised by the reaction.

"When we approved this thing we knew there would be some resistance," he said.

The boardwalk is part of the proposed Latham Island West Waterfront Park.

The park will cost around $130,000, including the $20,000 needed for the boardwalk.