Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 29/02) - Months of campaigning by residents of Otto Drive were almost shredded by council on Monday night when it threatened to strip back parking privileges in front of a few homes.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem cast the tie-breaking vote which allowed some of the residents to continue on-street parking.

No parking signs had been installed after the city changed the traffic pattern on Latham Island, and traffic on Otto Drive doubled.

Just over a month ago, council acceded to the residents' demands to give them back their parking, and requested that administration come back with a bylaw granting parking to all but one resident.

But on Monday night, Coun. Ben McDonald recommended reversing course on the concessions to which council had previously agreed.

"I think that if anything, my belief that this is a bad amendment is stronger than it was before," he said. "I think that it's very bad public policy for us to amend a bylaw to relate to only one intersection in one residential area in the city."

McDonald warned that doing so could leverage the city into providing on-street parking for anyone who requests it.

He added that the city imposed parking restrictions because some of the homes were at an intersection. "What we're doing by passing this bylaw is legalizing an unsafe situation," he said.

Coun. Alan Woytuik disagreed.

"This change was made as a result of a motion passed in this council chamber. To vote to change it now I don't think is in order," he said.

Van Tighem said he sided with the residents because of his involvement with residents in seeking a temporary solution to the parking problem.

The entire debate ultimately proved moot when council sent the entire highway traffic bylaw back to committee for further consideration. The parking changes were one part of the bylaw.