.

Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - More green space, responsible growth and mixing commercial and residential areas were all hot topics at the Design Yellowknife workshop at the Explorer Hotel Wednesday, as planners, consultants, businesspeople and residents hashed out ideas for Yellowknife's future.

Ann Peters, who works for a planning consultant firm, facilitates a discussion on ideas for Old Airport Road at the Design Yellowknife workshop April 29. - April Robinson/NNSL photo

"It's where wild meets modern," said Rochelle O'Rouke, as she worked with a small group on ideas for Old Airport Road. "We're talking 50 years from now."

The four days of meetings with community members is part of the city's Smart Growth Plan - a long-term plan looking at sustainable growth and development in Yellowknife. The city has been working on the plan since 2007, and has already conducted focus groups, questionnaire surveys and held a public open house.

The Design Yellowknife workshop is the mid-point of the plan, said Jeff Humble, director of planning for the city.

"It's always quite an ambitious task we set out," he said Wednesday, glancing around a room plastered with flip chart paper. "But I think it's working quite well."

Participants spent the first two days discussing urban design in a greater context, he said, considering projects such as a proposed science and technology park, and extracting geo-thermal energy from the city's abandoned gold mines. The next two days were dedicated to brainstorming and looking at the strengths and weaknesses of four key neighbourhoods - Old Town, downtown, Old Airport Road, and the Con Mine area.

"This is something to leave for the next generation," said O'Rouke. She thinks enhancing the gateway of Yellowknife and possibly moving the visitors' centre would be a good idea.

Other members in her group were marking up a map of Old Airport Road, drawing in bicycle and walking trails and adding residential homes to the commercial and industrial area leading to the airport.

Maintaining the existing character of Old Town is important to Paul Curren, an architect who was participating in the workshop.

"We want to improve pedestrian access and encourage mixed use of the area," he said.

"We also have a desire to work with the Yellowknives Dene," said Aleta Fowler, an Old Town resident. "Because a lot of that is their land."

Wayne Guy, another architect and Old Town resident, said he wants to see more government action taken to improve Old Town.

"There needs to be a round-table there," he said. "Nobody's moving on anything."

The workshop cost about $20,000, Humble said. It was funded with a $330,000 grant from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' Green Municipal Fund used for the larger Smart Growth Plan.

Consultants will now prepare a package report that includes transportation, ecological preservation and economic policy. The report is expected by the fall, Humble said.