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City proposes housing expansion Administration suggests developing upwards of 800 units over the next seven years
Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Published Friday, August 16, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknifers seeking to be homeowners may be spoiled for choice over the next few years if the city approves a proposal for new housing developments.
During a municipal services committee meeting, city administration presented three new housing developments for council's consideration, which could bring the total number of new housing units up to 800 over the next seven to eight years.
Of the proposed developments, Niven Lake Phase 8 and Ptarmigan Road are the largest with the former expected to provide 100 single family homes and the latter targeted for 240 single family homes and an additional 400 multi-family units. A third development is a proposal for 24 residential manufactured homes at Hordal-Bagon in Kam Lake.
Administration estimated the cost of developing Niven Lake Phase 8 at $17 million while the Ptarmigan Road development is estimated to cost $36 million.
Jeff Humble, director of planning and development, said the Ptarmigan Road development would likely occur in six phases, with 60 homes being built each year.
This would avoid saturating the market and would allow the city to spread out the costs of the development over several years.
For the same reasons, administration is suggesting the city proceed with either Niven Lake Phase 8 or the Ptarmigan Road developments.
"It's just not feasible to be spending money on several multi-million dollar projects at once," said Humble.
The proposal for expanding Yellowknife's housing market comes just weeks before council prepares to vote on whether to approve the development of Block 501 subdivision, which would provide 158 low-density single-family homes, and approximately 60 multi-family units.
While that may seem like a large amount of houses to fill, Jeff Humble, director of planning and development, said the different developments would give a wide set of options.
Humble added there are only 12 single-wide stick built lots remaining in Niven Lake and more single-family homes would help meet the needs of that market.
"With the 501 development that is more single-wide modular, whereas this is middle to upper end," he said of the proposed developments. "A lot of what is on the market right now is multi-family, so we want to make sure that there is the opportunity for folks who want to continue to build stick-built homes."
One of the concerns with building more housing developments in Yellowknife is the fact the population has been steadily decreasing over the past few years.
According to the NWT Bureau of Statistics, Yellowknife's population decreased by 496 between 2011 and 2012.
However, Humble said the city anticipates the Giant Remediation project will bring upwards of 350 new jobs in the coming years.
In addition, he predicted new mining start-ups, the expansion of the Department of Defense and devolution would likely lead to an increase in Yellowknife's population.
Sandra Turner, corporate representative for CMHC, said the city is heading in the right direction.
She said that of the two developments proposed by administration, the one at Ptarmigan Road should be the preferred option.
The lower prices of the lots at Ptarmigan Road compared to those in Niven Lake would give potential homeowners with smaller budgets the chance to own a home, she said.
"Finally, the city is diversifying a bit from Niven, Niven, Niven," said Turner.
A report by administration estimated the lots at Ptarmigan Road would be sold for between $85,000 and $125,000, while the lots at Niven Phase 8 would go for between $135,000 and $200,000.
Humble said adding houses to the market could also have the effect of bringing down rents across the city.
"Most certainly, with rental rates, there is the theory that this trickles down as more units come on the market," said Humble.
Rental vacancies have actually increased in recent years while rental prices have stayed relatively high in comparison
According to a report from the CMHC, average apartment vacancy rate in Yellowknife increased from 1.5 per cent in October 2011 to 3.6 per cent in October 2012.
In contrast, rental rates for that period increased to an average of $1,641 from $1,566 a year earlier.
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