City planners want public feedback on their long-range plan to develop the south end of downtown.
The plan, if adopted, would allow buildings up to 25 metres tall in some areas, up from the current limit of 20 metres. The plan would also open up parts of the escarpment to development.
About 60 people showed up to an open house Wednesday night to check it out - a strong showing considering it was also the night of game seven of the Stanley Cup series.
“I think generally the comments were pretty positive,” said city planner Ben Campbell.
The presentation that night detailed the development plans for the neighbourhood.
There were some concerns raised about relaxing height restrictions, but that was nothing new.
“Throughout this whole process, we’ve heard both support for higher buildings and comments on their impacts,” said Campbell. “We’ve used this process to try to find ways to minimize those impacts.”
The draft plan is now online at the city’s website. There is a comment period that ends June 30.
Campbell is encouraging the public to email him, fax him, or drop their comments off in person.
Once the comment period ends, the plan, including any changes, will be presented to council.
Then they hope to start working on zoning changes, and a geotechnical study of the escarpment.
“We’ve talked about the possibility of trying to get some of this land available for next year, but there’s a few little things that have to happen first,” said Campbell.
The Yukon government owns much of the land that the city is looking at for development, so the city will have to sit down with them and discuss what’s going to be done with it, said Campbell.
“It’s a high priority of council to get going right away,” he said. “We’d love to have that happen for sure, considering the housing situation.”
Contact Josh Kerr at
joshk@yukon-news.com