Yellowknife (Apr 27/05) - City Hall says it wants a second opinion on a Niven Lake housing development project that officials halted earlier this month over concerns it violated the city's zoning bylaw.

City council were presented with four options Monday, that would allow development of the Phase VI subdivision to continue, but developer Homes North argued that no changes are necessary because its so-called modular houses already conform to existing legislation.

"We're telling you the homes meet the current bylaw," said Kevin Hodgins of FSC Architects and Engineers, a Homes North consultant appearing before council for the third time in little over a week.

"We're not asking you to change anything."

If council were to adopt any of the options presented by administration, it could be weeks or months before Homes North would be allowed to resume developing the site.

The options include:

• adding the use "manufactured dwelling" (double-wide) to R2 residential zoning;
• create a new zoning called R6;
• reword the definition of manufactured dwelling and "modular home;" or
• remove the modular home definition from the zoning bylaw, but implement strict design standards and regulations that would control building mass and form.

However, council may not have to entertain any of them if administration changes its mind and issues a development permit.

That decision could come as early as today. Monte Christensen, manager of planning and lands, told council he was waiting for a "second opinion" from an unnamed consultant that Monday afternoon.

"We've asked for more information, and we're getting that information," said Christensen.

One definition problem is that the dwellings put forward could be called "trailers" because they have a steel chassis foundation.

"It's more than a chassis issue, that's only one part of it," Christensen said.

The latest problem for Homes North began after the company imported four of the houses to Yellowknife without a development permit and erected them on the site late last month.

A development officer concluded that the units violated the zoning bylaw for R2 housing because they were sitting on steel frames that appeared to be a chassis.

The city also thought the houses were too uniformly identical to each other.

Prospective buyers

Homes North has since told the city that the four units are only the first batch and that they intend to bring in other varieties of modular houses to give the 100-lot site a less uniform appearance.

If all goes well, Mayor Gord Van Tighem said, a development permit could be issued this week. He said he already encountered some prospective buyers on site while waiting to meet with Homes North president, Les Rocher.

"I was waiting for him for eight minutes and three people stopped by my van and asked, 'Are you selling these things?'" said Van Tighem.

"So there appears to be some demand."

Council is under mounting pressure to bring more affordable housing to Yellowknife. The $250,000 to $300,000 modular units proposed by Homes North would likely come under that definition, considering that many houses here sell for more than $500,000.

But Coun. Kevin O'Reilly said Homes North wouldn't be in the predicament it's in now if it had followed the rules and asked for a zoning change earlier.

He warned that Homes North could still face more headaches if someone decided to appeal the development permit.

"I don't know why we should wait another couple days for a decision when it could be appealed," said O'Reilly.