Make way for more parking
Historical building set to be razed to make parking spaces
Laura Busch
Northern News Services
Published Saturday, October 19, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A non-designated heritage building on Franklin Avenue will likely be torn down soon to make room for parking.
This house, originally called the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals house and most recently referred to as the Little Brown House, was finished in 1948. It is slated to be torn down before the new year to make space for a parking lot. - Laura Busch/NNSL photo
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The Little Brown House, as it has been called in recent years, was built in 1948 as staff housing for the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals. While it has never been given a heritage designation, the building has history and is stop no. 16 on the City of Yellowknife's New Town Heritage Tour.
The historical significance of the building was never brought to the attention of the building's current owners, the NWT Community Services Corp, who bought the building in 2006 for $275,000 with the express purpose of tearing it down to solve their parking problems.
"If it was heritage and had to be protected, we never would have bought it," said Larry Elkin, chair of NWT Community Services Corp.
On Nov. 7, NWT Community Services Corp approached the city to aquire permission to re-zone the lot for parking, where they were met by resistence by some city councillors.
"I envision a Yellowknife that isn't covered in 50 per cent parking lots," said Coun. Niels Konge at that meeting.
Coun. Rebecca Alty also spoke against tearing down the structure, while councillors Brookes, vanThuyne and Moon Son spoke in support of demolishing the house.
City council opted not to vote on the application that day and has yet to make a final decision.
Building will be razed or sold
Elkin told Yellowknifer they were surprised their application didn't sail through council.
If the re-zoning application is denied, the corporation will looks to sell the building.
"We need parking, we don't need another commercial property," said Gail Leonardis, property manager for NWT Community Services Corp.
The NWT Community Services Corp runs Northern United Place, which Leonardis and Elkin say provides the only private affordable housing in Yellowknife.
It contains 70 bachelor units that rent for $650 per month, as well as 14 one-bedroom apartments that cost $690 per month. Seniors and tennants with mobility disabilities receive a $300-per-month discount.
Currently, 32 residents are taking advantage of that discount, and the average family income for residents is about $25,000 per year. There is a list of 23 families waiting to live in the building.
"A lot of people talk about (affordable housing)," said Elkin. "We think we do it."
Aside from tennants, Aurora College students and staff need parking near NUP, as do residents who use the public meeting space located in the front of the building.
Having enough parking space has long been an issue at NUP, despite having an underground parkinsg structure with 42 spots.
"People have always complained about the lack of parking near Northern United Place," said Leonardis.
To meet the growing needs of motorists, four lots – or 45 to 55 parking spaces – were leased across the street. When that space was earmarked as the location of BETTY House in 2005, the corporation started looking for other options and bought the Little Brown House property.
"They knew right from the start that we would eventually need that for parking," said Elkin.
The City of Yellowknife has leased temporary access to 20 spots near Somba K'e Park to NUP tennants, but this is not a permanent solution, said Elkin.
The space behind the Little Brown House currently provides parking for about 12 vehicles. If the corporation's plan goes ahead, there will be 26 parking spaces on the lot.
'A shame to see it go'
Those 14 additional spaces are not enough to justify tearing down a historically-significant building for some, including Yellowknife historian Ryan Silke.
"It's a shame to see it go. It is in good shape and has some history. That seems to be the Yellowknife way....knock down an old building and pave another parking lot," he stated in an e-mail to Yellowknifer where he outlined the history of the building.
Over the years, the building has served as government housing, a private home, a rental property, a popular "party house," a Montessori school, a bed and breakfast and, most recently, a rooming house where tennants paid about $500 per month for a private room in a shared home.
When it was built in the 1940s, the Little Brown House was the youngest of three identical buildings on the Mildred Hall School lot. Its sister-structures were also relocated in the 1960s and still exist in downtown Yellowknife.
Elkin said the corporation would be open to having the house moved instead of torn down, but that it could not afford to do so on its own.
