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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
An anticipated protest of the sale of properties in the immediate vicinity of the Gold Range bar fizzled at Yellowknife city council Monday night.

Handmade posters at the bar led protesters to the meeting, but they came too early and did not stick around for the two-and-a-half hours between the poster's recommended arrival time and the time the item came to discussion.

On the meeting's agenda was a decision about the purchase of three lots, upon which Instaloan and Corner Mart are located, and an exchange of city land for the vacant corner lot at 50 Street and Franklin Avenue. Council passed bylaws to acquire the four properties just before 10 p.m., three hours after the meeting started.

The purchases are part of a larger plan to buy the land along 50 Street from CIBC to 51 Avenue, ostensibly for use in an eco-housing project. Opponents of the land purchase fear the city will put the wrecking ball to the Gold Range and Raven if it were to acquire these properties.

"We're not in the business of knocking down the Gold Range for the purpose of replacing it with 'social housing'," said city councillor Cory Vanthuyne. "If they don't want to sell, by no means will any kind of land be expropriated."

"That hasn't even been considered," confirmed Mayor Gord Van Tighem.

He said the city met with Gold Range Hotel co-owner Joel Park on Friday to discuss the issue. Park told Yellowknifer last week his family is not interested in selling the hotel. He and a number of supporters came to the Monday council meeting but left before they could address city council on the matter. He was not available for comment Tuesday.

Coun. David Wind, the lone dissenter in the land acquisition decision, wishes they had stayed.

"It's unfortunate they didn't get a chance to speak," Wind said. "I believe they were going to outline why they were opposed to selling their properties."

Wind voted against the bylaws due to concerns about the city's role.

"For us to tear down several viable businesses without the city having a clear idea about how the land is going to be used, I find the planning is incomplete and I can't support something like that."

Van Tighem, however, said the city's social issues committee recommended addressing the street first in any downtown redevelopment plans.

"What we're doing at this point in time is a bylaw to acquire those properties we have an agreement with," he said, "and an instruction to administration to continue to talk to the other people."

The value of the lots is unclear. The city has $2 million in its land fund, but expects to have between $3.3 million and $6 million available by the end of the year. Acquiring the vacant lot on the corner of 50 Street and Franklin Avenue - which had an asking price of $1.6 million earlier this year - through an exchange of land, if owner Jack Walker agrees, would increase the amount of money available to buy other properties.

Vanthuyne supports making 50 Street the focus of downtown revitalization efforts because of the social problems that manifest themselves on the street.

"The issues are bigger than the Raven and Gold Range," Vanthuyne said. "It has taken us 12 to 15 years to get where we are and it will take us that long or longer than that to get out."

Rather than look to a future without the Gold Range and the Raven, he said the businesses could be part of the solution.

"(They) have an excellent opportunity to be the cornerstone of the revitalization process. There is funding available the owners could access to renew the facades of their buildings and a muraling program to change the way we look at the street."

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