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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Yellowknife city council is discussing the possibility of changing the zoning of Old Airport Road to prohibit industrial uses and allow medium to high-density residential development.

The recommendation, presented at the Municipal Services Committee meeting last week, left Coun. David Wind questioning why.

"It seems to me there would be other areas in the city that would be more desirable for residential," he said.

"That's a major arterial entry point to and from the city, and a lot of heavier vehicles are moving along that road at present.

"If I was looking for a place to live in the city, it certainly wouldn't be my first choice."

Jeff Humble, Yellowknife's director of planning and lands, said the reason for the proposed change is that the city wants to change how the area is used. The idea came out of the Smart Growth Development Plan that council adopted last year.

"During the Smart Growth process, we identified Old Airport Road as a desirable place for intensification to encourage mixed-use development and increase pedestrian activity, and tying it in with the capital area," Humble said. "We feel as we encourage the revitalization, redevelopment and start to encourage the relocation of industrial activities, that over time, for example in 10 years, residential development will become more desirable in that part of the city."

Since adopting the Smart Growth Plan, the city has been trying to encourage industry - manufacturing, processing, repairing and warehousing - to relocate to the Engle Business District through an incentive program that offers tax breaks. The goal is to gradually phase out industrial activity along Old Airport Road and open it up to residential development south of Borden Drive.

Also included in the recommendation are suggestions on how to make the area more pedestrian friendly to accommodate people living in the area.

One way to do that, according to the committee agenda, is to bring buildings closer to the street by reducing the amount of parking in front of buildings to two rows of vehicles.

But Coun. Wind disagrees with this type of incentive.

"I think this perhaps is unnecessarily restrictive, and so I'm not in favour of the setback provisions that are included in this bylaw," he said. "It seems to me that we don't have a lot of development going on and we want to encourage development and not restrict or make it so costly that someone that might be interested forgoes the opportunity of locating their business here in Yellowknife and, in this particular case, along Old Airport Road."

Coun. Cory Vanthuyne, who sits on the Smart Growth Implementation Committee, said there was a lot of discussion about the recommendations brought forward to council and that he supports them.

"I'm quite encouraged with the changes that are being made here," he said. "I think what the Smart Growth Implementation Committee was trying to achieve in this process was trying to allow the area to become a little bit more, what I would call, livable in terms of allowing people to access the area by walking or by local transit."

Vanthuyne also supported the design regulations coming forward, which are similar to those being proposed for the city's downtown: including a minimum of two complimentary colours and materials for the building's entryway.

"Asking for a minimum of two colours to be provided and a minimum of two exterior siding materials to be used, I don't think that's necessarily anything that's going to hinder development, let alone not encourage development," he said. "I think that, in fact, encourages architects, designers, owners to get more creative in the process and not build what I call a concrete-type jungle."

City council will vote on the rezoning of Old Airport Road at a future council meeting.

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