Whitehorse, the wilderness city, is about to enter a new era. Tragic enough the venerable Whitehorse Star is about to shut down it presses and shutter its doors. Our esteemed mayor and the majority of her counsellors have voted in favour of Bylaw 2024-16. Once an open city of greenspace and elbow room, our wilderness city is about to enter an age of high-rise and high-density development.
Perhaps now that all properties zoned ‘single family residential’ have been redefined to allow four dwelling units per lot the mayor and her supportive counsellors, with their infinite wisdom and myopic vision, may have time to explain the following: Why is a simple six foot high, eight by 12 foot, chicken run deemed more onerous and having a far greater effect on a neighbourhood than a four-dwelling complex?
Want to install a hen house (max six chickens)?
City bylaw officers will canvas your neighbours, the majority of whom must agree with the installation.
Add a four unit dwelling complex to a single family residential lot Adjacent property owners don’t even have to be notified.
Still,there is faint hope such foolishness of local governance will be recognized and repealed withing the complete bylaw review now under study. Perhaps some modicum of common sense will prevail with bureaucrats and council showing a little more respect for concerns and intelligence of citizens. Given recent history and the push to advance retroactive high density residential area I don’t expect such.
What a pleasant surprise it would be if the January 2025 bylaw rewrite were to reflect a deeper level of thought and showed more consideration for valid and very real concerns expressed by lay members of our community.
After all, this is a democracy. The feudal system of governance was written out of our (British) system long ago. As far as I am aware, a state of autocracy is not recognized as the formal type of governance within Canada (yet). To those who have been lobbying for electoral reform and change of governance… change is coming! Given the ever increasing intrusion into common people’s lives and creeping erosion of their rights, change is happening. It just may not resemble the democratic system you’ve been working for.
Robert Gates
Whitehorse