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Kam Lake businesses worried about traffic

James Rubec
Northern News Services
Published Friday, October 7, 2011

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Landowners and business operators around Kam Lake Road are tired of terrible traffic and don't want it to get any worse.

At a municipal services committee meeting at city hall on Monday, two Yellowknifers shared their concerns with council on how the proposed Homes North development could affect the neighbourhood.

"Traffic on Kam Lake road is a problem as it is," said Eric Sputek, owner of Hovat Construction and a resident of Kam Lake for the past 22 years.

Sputek is concerned the proposed 178-lot modular home development is going to spill 100-plus more vehicles onto an already congested roadway.

"The transportation study that's already been done couldn't have possibly planned for this new development. The intersection of Coronation Drive and Kam Lake Road will only get worse."

Sputek would like to see a new traffic study that looks at the possible traffic impact of the proposed Homes North development and the possibility of more businesses moving into the Kam Lake industrial park.

"We're going to have increased foot traffic, we'll have car traffic, snowmobiles and truck traffic. It's going to be a word I can't say in this room," said Sputek.

Jim Pook, the owner of Northern Communication & Navigation Systems Ltd., a business located on Coronation Drive said traffic at the intersection is a safety issue.

"Since the bypass road has gone through behind the airport, there has been much more traffic on Coronation Drive. The development that is being proposed will dump its traffic right onto the Kam Lake Road, Coronation Drive intersection," said Pook. "There have been many accidents, we've tried for years to have a yield, or a merge lane put in there. But that's gone nowhere."

Homes North paid more than $1,140,000 in land, cash and services for the Kam Lake property, and developer Les Rocher doesn't want to see another traffic study undertaken.

"Coronation Drive has always been a problem, there is a visibility issue caused by a large rock outcrop, if we remove it, that will start to solve the problem," he said.

Rocher added that with more studies undertaken and the longer this project takes to get underway, the more it will cost.

"The whole point of this development is to keep the cost as low as possible. If the cost isn't low, it won't help the city," he said, adding the process has already taken more than two years, and this is why properties end up costing so much.

Released to the public was a preliminary plan for the development, showing the layout of the 178 lots. Some details still to be determined are the width of distance between the correctional facility and the development.

The developer and city administration said that they would ask the GNWT for an additional five-metre buffer between the facility and the development.

"If they say no, we'll have to accept the five-meter buffer," said city administrator Robert Long.

The next step in the development of the project is for city administration to negotiate with the developer items such as water and sewer infrastructure, whether the electrical wiring will be below ground or overhead, the type of paving and who will pay for all of these things.

The proposed Homes North development is located on the 501 block of Kam Lake Road, between a correctional facility, an industrial park and the shore of Kam Lake.

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