SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The city had to cancel a ballot draw on Oct.23 for lots in the Engle Business District due to lack of interest from buyers but property is now available to buy.

The city's director of planning and lands, Jeff Humble, said only one person expressed interest in putting in a bid and withdrew it when they realized there was no rush on buying a piece of land.

"They wanted to wait, which is understandable given that there were no other bidders," he said.

Humble said he wasn't surprised the ballot draw had to be cancelled.

"Hopefully interest will pick up in the spring and when the economy turns around."

Humble said the lots in the Engle Business District are larger than most in the city, with the smallest being half a hectare. They are on sale for an average of $125,000 per acre, depending on the property's topography and ground condition.

There are now 20 lots for sale, a further 10 to 15 may be available in the first stage of development. Humble said he doesn't expect Phase two and three to start for several years.

The area is located between Kam Lake and Highway 3, on the Deh Cho Boulevard, which is set to open in the next month.

Humble said the city loosened some of the landscaping requirements they initially set out with the development to make the area more appealing to buyers.

"Rather than have a strict landscaping requirement, where you're required to plant X number of trees, there is the option that the developer can preserve a certain area. Rather than blast the entire lot, if the area is X metres, they would preserve that as a natural feature and they wouldn't be required to do landscaping."

The specific percentages depend on the specific proportions of the lot.

He said besides being an industrial area, the city considers the subdivision to have recreation potential.

"We do hope to get that recreation infrastructure in place in the next few years," he said.

Humble said the city plans to develop trails in the area as a part of the ongoing plan for more interconnected green space in the city. He said they may also be appealing to people hoping to bike or walk to work.

City councillor David Wind said he was aware of the development scheme to put money into more trails and thought it was a good idea. He said the challenge would be finding ways to maintain trails and snowmobile corridors around industrial development.

"The area was already used extensively with informal trails. Certainly as we develop it, we should have some recognition of the usage that was made of the area before and not without some consideration curtail those usages and still have the land available for industrial use," he said.