Yellowknife (Sep 19/03) - A for sale sign on land adjacent to the entrance of Stanton Territorial Hospital has left Coun. Kevin O'Reilly shaking his head in disbelief.

"I am amazed the city would sell it without a traffic study being done. It's unconscionably poor planning," O'Reilly told city council recently.

The commercial land has a price tag of $567,000 and the parcel is larger than 9,500 square metres.

"The important thing to note is that this is the designated emergency entrance into the hospital. I'm concerned about the amount of traffic generated by the Westfair Foods development on the other side."

O'Reilly also stressed the importance of consulting with the hospital before site development. "Given this other new development now, the hospital may have to install charcoal filters on their air intake system at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers' dollars because of poor planning on the part of the City of Yellowknife," O'Reilly said of the resulting fumes from idling transport vehicles at the grocery store.

"It's a planning free-for-all now around the hospital," said O'Reilly.

Greg Kehoe, director of the city's public works department, said it is understood the roadways around the lot of land at the Range Lake Road and Old Airport Road intersection can withstand a higher volume of traffic.

"After we discuss the land with the developers, we can ask them to do a traffic study," Kehoe said.

But the city will have input on where right and left hand turns as well as access roads are going to be placed on the lot.

Traffic studies are done on a case-by-case basis, he said, and can range in cost from $2,000 to $5,000.

At the Stanton Territorial Hospital, Kerry Beauchamp, facility and biomedical services manager, said the potential problem of diesel fumes from the grocery loading deck entering into the hospital air supply has been an ongoing concern.

Beauchamp said prevailing winds are a factor in whether or not the fumes affect the hospital.

As for the new parcel of land for sale, he said it remains to be seen if diesel fumes affect the hospital -- depending on what is built there.