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RTL's tank farm is the only industrial plant currently operating in the Engle Business District. Businesses moving into the area this year will follow stricter regulations on landscaping requirements. - Peter Varga/NNSL photo

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The city plans to spare any more natural spaces in Yellowknife's industrial areas from being blasted and cleared, as has long been the norm.

Landscaping requirements for the Engle Business District west of Range Lake will be tightened to ensure developers clearly set aside parcels of land not to be razed, and encourage them to keep natural plants on site.

In industrial areas, city administration has witnessed uneven rock surfaces in front yards being blasted away. Owners, according to planning and lands director Jeff Humble, then typically "try and go back and plant on particularly rocky terrain," he said.

Such planting doesn't work very well, he added, as plants are ill-suited to the rocky, barren terrain. City administration's answer to preventing this is to expand the area of land between the road and property, known as "front yard setbacks."

"What we're saying is that setbacks will serve as a natural buffer - an improved buffer," Humble told city council at Monday's municipal services committee meeting.

The proposed amendments to zoning bylaws include increasing minimum front yard setbacks from four metres to eight metres for business industrial (BI) zones and from six to 10 metres in general industrial (GI) zones.

"This significantly reduces the amount that (industrial businesses) will have to spend on clearing and replanting, maintaining," Humble told city council. "Particularly since we don't have a water source out there" in the Engle Business District.

Coun. Bob Brooks asked Humble why the proposed amendments to zoning bylaws included limits to driveway widths.

"What we fear might happen - you've seen it for example on Old Airport Road - owners are required to have their definite driveways, but there are not always definite driveways," said Humble. "So the whole frontage becomes the driveway."

The proposed changes to zoning are in keeping with the city's general plan, Humble pointed out. His memo presented to city council serves as a reminder that the city's 2004 general plan calls for the city to "promote growth while preserving and maintaining Yellowknife's unique environment."