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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A controversial land swap between Homes North developer Les Rocher and the territorial government is closer to completion following a public hearing at city council Monday night.

Council gave second reading to a zoning change bylaw that Rocher needed to exchange three downtown lots he bought for $642,000 for a swath of raw land between Kam Lake and the North Slave Correctional Centre.

The public gallery was filled with prominent Yellowknife business people who were there to support Rocher's plan to fill the new subdivision with up to 120 manufactured homes with price stickers of around $340,000.

Couns. David Wind and Paul Falvo, who attended the meeting by phone from Gjoa Haven, were the lone opponents to the bylaw that supporters welcomed as a partial answer Yellowknife's perennial housing crisis.

Tim Doyle, executive director of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, said Yellowknife employers are losing workers to businesses in Alberta, where wages are about the same, but housing costs are much lower. "Housing prices here are outrageous," said Don Yamkowy, and pointed to the cost of a duplex: "$500,000 a side is not affordable housing."

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