Council Briefs
Council considers fate of unmarked bylaw vehicles
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Published Friday, October 31, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The use of unmarked bylaw enforcement vehicles should end, said several city councillors on Monday.
Coun. Adrian Bell told fellow councillors at the Municipal Services Committee he wants the ghost cars phased out.
"What we're losing by having the ghost cars is the deterrent effect," Bell said. Couns. Niels Konge and Rebecca Alty said they'd also be in favour of having all marked vehicles, while Coun. Phil Moon Son said he wouldn't be.
Moon Son said there is an advantage to having a stealth car for traffic enforcement.
The recently released operational review of the division said a combination of marked and unmarked cars "may contribute to tactical effectiveness."
The city has two unmarked vehicles and two marked vehicles.
Parking meters should be yanked: Bell
Parking meters installed last month by the city should be removed from some sections of 53 Street, said Coun. Adrian Bell.
Council needs to have a wider discussion of parking meters downtown, he said during Monday's Municipal Services Committee meeting.
The city is phasing them into sections of the city, though businesses which request them could have them installed earlier.
That saw two-hour meters added along 53 Street.
Bell said he'd like to see two-hour meters - not directly around the businesses that requested them - switched to nine-hour meters.
"If we can't swap them out, I'd like to see them removed," Bell said.
The city doesn't have the nine-hour meters in stock, yet.
He said he just wanted to raise it as a discussion point, which should be a larger conversation about parking downtown at some point.
Two streets, 48 and 53, don't have nine-hour meters yet but will, said Dennis Marchiori, the city's director of public safety.
The only nine-hour meters are on a section of Memorial Drive downtown.
Bell showed support for the idea of parking meters to influence parking downtown, but also said the city needs to carry it out differently.
"What we did on 53 street was blunt; it was not thought through," he said.
He said he will be bringing forward a motion on the issue at a later time.
Development incentive review sought
The effectiveness of a downtown development program should be reviewed by city administration, said Coun. Adrian Bell.
During the Municipal Services Committee on Monday, Bell said he doesn't believe the Residential Intensification Incentive, which in part aims to revitalize downtown through tax breaks, is working.
"My opinion is that we're not getting enough uptick on this, very little of it is taking place in the downtown core or the transitional area," said Bell.
The program applies to new construction or the adaptive re-use of existing buildings and means an owner wouldn't pay property taxes for five years.
He said it should be changed to an upfront grant given out once a building has an occupancy permit.
The problem Bell raised is part of a series of issues developers face in the city, said Coun. Niels Konge, who owns Konge Construction Ltd.
He didn't expand on what those issues are. He said the city should make it easier for developers to build in the community.
