City cools to adding Old Town parks
Floatplane association seeks dock building permit system from council
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Published Friday, October 31, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
City councillors shied away from spending $500,000 for three small parks in Old Town, but will still consider creating one on Wiley Road that would include a floatplane dock for visiting planes.
As part of the city's harbour redevelopment plan, administration pitched creating a park on a vacant Wiley Road lot on waterfront public land between Otto Drive and Watt Drive and another park off McDonald Drive near the McMeekin Causeway in Old Town.
The work proposed for the three sites includes cleaning up those lots and adding picnic tables, garbage bins, parking spaces, signs and bike racks.
"Spending another $500,000 for another park is something I won't be able to support," said Coun. Phil Moon Son at the Municipal Services Committee on Monday.
Councillors balked at the overall cost of administration's proposals and instead will only consider development of the Wiley Road park at its next regular council meeting.
Jeff Humble, the city's director of planning and development, said 3526 Wiley Rd., a waterfront lot near the Wildcat Cafe, is in a significant state of disrepair and puts the city at a liability risk if not fixed.
The estimated cost starts at $25,000 for a "quick fix," but could go as high as $150,000 said Dennis Kefalas, the city's senior administrative officer.
The site could accommodate a dock for two visiting floatplanes, said Hal Logsdon, president of the NWT Floatplane Association, who was on hand at Monday's meeting.
According to the city, neighbouring company Great Slave Yacht Club (GSYC) doesn't want the lot used for planes or boats.
Meanwhile, the area between Otto Drive and Watt Drive, which is public land, is already home to privately-built docks. The floatplane association and the Latham Island Landowners Association both agree on keeping those particular docks in place.
"Our position is that it is totally absurd to take perfectly good docks that are being used by both residents and non-residents for floatplanes and for boats and substitute it for something else that's built by the city at the city's expense," Logsdon said about the city's pitch.
Logsdon said the city should establish a system which would require somebody who wants to build a dock to get a permit, and let the existing docks remain if they are deemed safe by the city. Coun. Bob Brooks was interested in the permit idea and said he hoped administration would look into it.
Lisa Scott, with the landowners association, who was at Monday's committee meeting, said Otto Drive Park hasn't been properly maintained by the city.
Coun. Rebecca Alty suggested city administration should address that in coming years in its operations budget.
Logsdon said there's already a shortage of available docks for floatplanes.
The administration proposal for the properties came to council as part of the city's harbour plan, which was adopted in 2012.
The plan recommends creating a a floatplane/small boat marina on Back Bay on Latham Island and maintain and upgrade the Wiley Road lot and other city lots along the water.
