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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
City council deferred a decision to locate a public dock for floatplanes and small boats in Old Town Monday after city consultations with neighbours failed to materialize.

NWT Floatplane Association president Hal Logsdon addresses a question from City councillor Shelagh Montgomery during the municipal services committee meeting Monday. - Simon Whitehouse/NNSL photo

Hal Logsdon, president of the NWT Floatplane Association, railed against the city for bringing forward a motion on Monday to install a dock at Lessard Drive despite having not met with his group and area neighbours as directed by council in April.

At a April 2 special council meeting, council supported putting a dock at the south end of Latham Island, as recommended by the Harbour Planning Committee, but included an amendment that the city would consult with neighbours and the floatplane association to clarify the design and operations of the dock.

The deferral Monday will now see that consultations are carried out over the next few weeks.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said another recommendation will come forward as a result of the consultations on the issue no later than the municipal services committee on Aug. 13.

Consultation meetings were scheduled following council's direction. But before they took place, the floatplane association offered a "short-term compromise" to put a dock at a city park on Lot 5 of Wiley Road - the same place that senior administrative officer Bob Long parked his Super Cub floatplane last spring. The proposed location between Otto Drive and Lessard Drive still remains "a prime area" for the future, said Logsdon.

Latham Island neighbours, in turn, fully supported the idea, although city administration is against it.

"If you go back to (April's) motion, council told administration to consult with residents of Morrison Drive and the NWT Floatplane Association in regard to the design and project between Lessard and Otto Drive and then come back to council for final approval," said Logsdon, calling Monday's recommendation "premature" and "inappropriate."

"They haven't done that."

The city has rejected the offer to place the dock at the Wiley Road location based in part on opposition expressed by the neighbouring Robinson family and the Great Slave Yacht Club.

"They (the yacht club and the Robinson family) were quite clear that the development of this area as a floatplane dock would be a safety concern for the club and the family-owned docks," reads the July 9 municipal services committee memorandum.

"Additionally, they are concerned that the addition of the docks would prevent them from disembarking from their mooring location."

Logsdon pointed out that the meetings with neighbours are crucial because the association is concerned with how the docks are designed and operated.

"I have seen at least three iterations of how these docks are to be configured and all of them don't really meet the mark with realistic operation," he said. "We have plans that show 30-foot airplanes at 20-foot docks.

"If you want to go ahead and forge forward with your own design without any input from people who know what floatplanes do and how they operate and how long they are, fill your boots. But I don't think you want to build a facility that isn't appropriate for the end user."

At least five Latham Island residents were in the public gallery Monday to hear the discussion.

Louise Dundas-Matthews, a Morrison Drive resident who had given a presentation in April opposing the Lessard Drive location, said she and a number of neighbours who have been meeting informally on the issue this year sent a letter to the city supporting the Wiley Road location.

"For us, it is deeper water and a more secure area to protect the floatplane. It is also not mixing pedestrians and floatplanes and it doesn't disrupt the water for kayaks and canoes," said Dundas-Matthews. "All of it made a lot of sense to us."

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