City might give go-ahead for 'unauthorized' land use
Committee recommends granting five-year lease to RTL-Robinson Enterprises Ltd. to allow use of city land
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Friday, April 24, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The city's municipal services committee has recommended legitimizing a construction company's decades-long unauthorized use of city-owned land.
In the coming weeks council will vote on whether RTL-Robinson Enterprises Ltd. should receive a five-year lease for the 32,200 square metres of city land off Old Airport Road on which it has encroached.
RTL has three lots along the road it has proper rights to use, but over the years the company has extended its use into space the city took over in 2007 from the territorial government.
A lease is required for a private company to use city land.
"I think what we need to do is that we need to legitimize what's been going on for 25-plus years," Coun. Cory Vanthuyne said during an April 13 committee meeting.
Approving the lease would mean the company pays a lease fee of five per cent of the assessed value of the land, which would be more than $28,000, plus a $10,000 security deposit.
The lease fee would be paid on top of property taxes, which RTL has previously been paying on the land, according to a city hall staff report presented to the committee.
Councillors have also sought to have an environmental assessment of the site begin in the first year of the lease. The aim is to have the company clean up any contamination found before the end of the lease.
The city's goal is to redevelop that section of Old Airport Road in the future to a mix of commercial and residential, as the current industrial users relocate to the Engle Business District.
"I'm happy with the new recommendations, I think they address our concerns," said Coun. Bob Brooks.
The lease would have an option at the end of that period for council to review and extend it for another five years.
RTL vice-president of operations Larry Wheaton told senior administrative officer Dennis Kefalas he'd prefer a longer lease, the municipality's top bureaucrat told the committee on Monday.
However, he added "they're more than happy to go along with (the current proposal)."
Calls for comment from RTL were not returned by press time.
The approval of the recommendations by the committee comes after a version presented at the previous meeting was deemed unacceptable by councillors because it called for a 10-year lease.
It also did not include a stipulation for an environmental assessment to begin in the first year.
Kefalas cautioned that asking a well-established company to be off the property in five years was not realistic.
RTL has not yet bought space in Engle for relocation, he said.
"This is a significant operation and a significant contributor to the city for over a generation," Kefalas said. "It wouldn't be fair to them to say you have to vacate the site in five years. Five years wouldn't be adequate."
Coun. Adrian Bell urged that granting the lease could set a precedent that businesses can encroach on city land and get away with it.
"For me, just dragging this out is tantamount to saying it's OK," Bell said.
He expressed support for the revised recommendation.
