Revitalizing Yellowknife's downtown means bringing residential development back into the city's core. At least, that's the recommendation of a new report tabled with city council.
Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jun 20/01) - Plugging a quarter into a downtown parking meter could help pay the way to a revitalized city core.
It's part of the city's "Downtown Plan and Development Scheme." It contains 36 recommendations to revitalize Yellowknife's downtown by 2016.
"We want downtown to be the heart of Yellowknife and an enjoyable place to do business," said Dave Jones, a planner with the city planning and lands division.
Many of the recommendations are based on initiatives taken by other Canadian cities who have successfully revitalized their downtown areas, such as Edmonton and London, Ont.
A major focus of the plan involves re-establishing downtown Yellowknife as a hub of residential growth. "With a greater residential population in the downtown area, it will help the commercial sector," said Jones.
The city estimates that it collects more than $200,000 per year from downtown parking metres. The plan calls for taking half that amount for a fund that would provide one-time grants to encourage multi-unit residential construction.
The city views this initiative as a two-pronged approach: One, to encourage developers to build more housing units, and the other to impress upon people parking their vehicles downtown about the benefits of plugging coins into city meters.
"It's kind of a marketing gimmick if you will," Jones said.
The parking meter initiative also calls for using the money to create a five-year downtown tax-back grant program and waiving of application fees for residential development.
Increases in property taxes resulting from improvements to downtown properties will be granted back to developers re-investing in downtown. Likewise, permit fees and demolition fees may be paid back to developers once residential construction is complete.
The city will also be looking at such schemes as facade improvement, allowing for patio space, installing bike racks and a mural and downtown art programs to promote local cultural and historical themes fitting to Yellowknife's identity as a mining and aboriginal heritage centre.
Even though the plan has been under work since 1999, Mayor Gordon Van Tighem said much more public consultation will be needed before the plan moves into the development stage.
"We are going to make every effort to make a broader spectrum of the community provide comment. It's been a fairly restricted involvement up until this point."
Downtown businesses have welcomed the move to revitalize downtown, and some have ideas of their own. "What they've done so far, they're doing really good," said Avis Hogue, who works at Sasha's Jewelry and Giftware.
"They're trying to make downtown more appealing. It's just upsetting when people tear down trees and litter the sidewalks."
John Beckwith, owner of Western Arctic Lock and Safe Co., said the city should look toward other downtown centres such as Ottawa's in planning for the future. "I think they should cut off the whole Franklin area from the Royal Bank to the Legion and turn it into a walk-in mall, and only leave it open to buses and taxis," Beckwith said.
"People can take the side streets to get downtown."
(Robert Slaven on the key to a vibrant downtown)
