Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Apr 05/02) - A proposed zoning bylaw brought five angry people armed with a petition to town council last Wednesday to protest a town proposal that could place an apartment building in their neighbourhood.

Inuvik town council had proposed a zoning change from RH-1 (mobile home park) to R-2 (medium density residential) which means apartment buildings could be built at Ruyant Crescent.

Spokesperson for the petition group, Michael Conway, asked that the town reconsider the zoning change.

Conway said most residents weren't aware of the zoning change and asked that the town develop in a "reasonable, responsible manner, by protecting the people who currently live there."

"Our biggest problem is with the classification system, where you can build something that size," he said. "The classification for a duplex carries the same classification as an apartment building like what we see on the Ptarmigan Hills."

Geri Sharpe-Staples also lives in the area.

She said the neighbourhood offers a secure environment for her children that she never had living in an apartment building.

"At the apartment, I couldn't let them out of my sight -- they had the parking lot to play in," Sharpe-Staples said. "A trailer park means more families in the neighbourhood, an apartment building doesn't."

Marsha Branigan owns and operates a guest house in the neighbourhood. Branigan said when she bought her place, she knew that the land across her street might one day be developed into a trailer park and had no problem with that.

"If it were a trailer park, I could still see out my balcony and still have a view," she said. "That's why I bought my place; so I could sit on my porch after work in the evenings and enjoy that view."

"If they put a three-storey walk-up where you're suggesting, that's gone."

Branigan was also surprised that duplexes, row housing and apartment buildings carry the same classification under R-2.

She suggested the R2 zoning go to the Wolverine extension where the view would not be impeded.

On consideration of the petition and public statements, council decided to table the zoning and will look at other options to the zoning classification and the possibility of having apartments along the vacant side of Wolverine.

Later, Mayor Peter Clarkson said the town may consider changing the zoning bylaw to specify apartment dwellings as R3 or have other levels of R2.

"It would make the most sense to go with R1, R2 and R3, because right now, we've got either black or white; either it's a single family residential or it's a multi-family," Clarkson said. "We should probably rezone to R3 and grandfather all apartments into R3 and when we look at our new plan, we can keep all the R3s together."

The zoning laws require the town to advertise any zoning changes in the newspaper for two consecutive weeks and post the notice in five conspicuous places around town.

That was done, but as a further courtesy, Clarkson says the town will normally mail letters to residents when zoning changes take place in neighbourhoods. The mayor said that never happened this time, due to an oversight.