Yellowknife (Jun 23/06) - A councillor wants the city to pack up its Kam Lake garage and maintenance centre to make room for shore-front homes.

The Public Works garage was placed by the city at the north end of Kam Lake in 1978, but Coun. Doug Witty thinks the area is too "spectacular" to be used for stockpiling gravel and port-o-potties.

Coun. Doug Witty says the existing city garage site on the shore of Kam Lake is better suited to residential development which means the garage should be moved elsewhere. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

"It's right beside a school; it's right beside the Multiplex," said Witty.

"There would be some work involved in moving the garage, but I think it would open up a beautiful piece of residential property."

A public dock onto Kam Lake could also be built there, said Witty, adding that boating access onto the lake is limited to a small, swampy area that has no loading ramp.

Witty said the city garage site, which also serves as storage for the Community Services department, should be moved out to the proposed Kam Lake secondary access road around the airport after it's built.

The city recently acquired a large parcel of land from the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs to expand the Kam Lake industrial zone. The city wants to build a second road through this zone connecting to Highway 3.

"There's going to be industrial properties all down the side of the Kam Lake access road," said Witty.

"When those properties open up, the city just needs to keep a few of them in their own inventory to create a public works garage.

"I think the revenue generated from the sale of land around there could significantly offset the cost of putting up new buildings and that sort of thing (for a new garage)."

Witty raised the idea during a council committee meeting, Monday.

He doubts it has much chance of making it onto the city's agenda before October's municipal election, but hopes a new council will give the idea a hard look afterwards, even if he's not on it.

Public Works director Greg Kehoe said the existing garage site is ideal because it's also home to the city's main sewage lift station, which was placed there because the site sits in a natural depression allowing gravity to carry the sewage downhill.

He said the lift station handles about 80 per cent of the city's sewage. Kehoe said it's possible the garage could be moved, but it would be expensive and extremely labour intensive because many of the buildings on the site would have to be replaced, and all the stores of street sand and city equipment would have to be trucked out.

"We could put a man on the moon, so we can move the city garage, but what would the costs be? And what is the value of the land it currently occupies, and those sort of things?" asked Kehoe.

Coun. Kevin O'Reilly attended Monday's meeting, but admitted he wasn't paying much attention to what Witty was saying about the garage site.

He said the idea was interesting but is worried about the cost.

"It might be something worth looking at but it's the first time I've ever sort of heard about it," said O'Reilly.