Yellowknife city council slams idea to ask some developers to wait 18 months for permits

An idea to ask some potential developers to wait as long as 18 months for land-use permits received a cold reception at Monday's municipal services committee meeting.

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Liang Chen is one of three people who wants to develop in theGrace Lake South area. He wants to build an aurora viewing centre basicallybuildings with glass roofs, so tourists can watch the Northern lightsin comfort.

The city wants to reject his land-use application, along with one from the Yk Dog Trotters Association and Ace Enterprises, until administration has a better idea of the long-term vision for this area.

Grace Lake will be considered along with Kam Lake and other areas of the city as part of a new community plan. The city is required by law to update this plan which is essentially a 20-year roadmap for land useevery eight years. Officials expect this entire process will take about 18 months.

Keeping up with the competition

Chen appeared before council to say other circumpolar regions are starting to grow into formidable competition in the aurora tourism market.

Other regions are forging ahead with luxury accommodations for aurora viewing, pulling ahead of the Northwest Territories, he said.

"One of these is a glass viewing station essentially allows you to be comfortable inside while [watching the aurora]," he said. "When it's minus 40 outside, how long do you stay outside?"

Chen said he's flexible. He'd be happy to lease the land instead of purchasing it outright, and couldpare his land request down to just an acre, he said.

The centre would cost between $750,000 and $1 million to build, he said.

Coun.Niels Konge did some quick computing and asked if it's reasonable to estimate the aurora viewing centre would inject $9 million into the community over five years.

"Yep," answered Chen.

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Konge and every other councillor in attendance Steve Payne, Julian Morse and Adrian Bell expressed concern that the city is gearing up to reject Chen's application, along with the other two.

"I've heard from the business community that we need to be moving yesterday in terms of building capacity for tourism," Morse said.

"Every time I look at this issue it looks like we are behind the ball as opposed to ahead of it. We are in a boom period and need to adjust for it now," he said."Hoping we can be ready in 2021 or 2022, I believe that will be too late."

Bell agreed, saying he could count at least a half-dozen instances where he's watched developers arrive with a business idea and leave empty handed because the government can't or won't accommodate their ideas.

'Where we need to grow is a really important consideration'

Nalini Naidoo, the city's director of planning and development, said she understands council's frustration.

"But being sensitive to the next 20 years and where we need to grow is a really important consideration," she said.

Council suggested administration work closely with Chen, Ace Enterprises and the Yk Dog Trotters Association to come up with a way forward that makes everybody happy. Sheila Bassi-Kellett, the city's senior administrative officer said this could be done.