Whitehorse’s council heard from prospective developers, area residents and other interested parties regarding the possibility of allowing land to be used for a country-residential-style development within city limits.
The land in question is a parcel located beyond the Lobird trailer park off Hamilton Boulevard and shares the same owners. At previous meetings, council heard about the plan for this land: The developer plans 16 lots that would not be connected to city water and sewer services, but that would be attached to the city road system with a road the developer would build.
The development would be called Highland Estates.
The unserviced and large lots proposed for the area conflict with the city’s official community plan (OCP) for the area, so the developer is seeking to have the area redesignated as country residential property.
At an earlier meeting when the plan was first presented to council, city staff raised concerns, including that the proposed use was much less dense and would result in fewer housing units than building to the density of adjacent neighbourhoods would.
Council heard from the developer that the land is unsuitable for denser development.
At the earlier meeting, the city administration acknowledged it had limited information about the suitability of the site for a more dense neighbourhood.
Council gave the OCP amendment’s first reading on March 11 and advertised April 8’s public hearing afterwards.
At the public hearing, an area resident who says he recently moved into a unit in the Lobird trailer park expressed a need for more units in the area but also concerns about traffic.
“There is an area between the roundabout and top of the hill that has no streetlights, and a lot of people speed up that hill a lot and it’s quite dangerous to walk up there. I was wondering if you could put up streetlights in between the roundabout and the hill, the top of the hill,” he said.
Another speaker suggested the large lots provided could be well suited to residents interested in growing their own food.
Felix Robataille, a realtor who spoke up in favour of the development at a previous meeting, suggested that chatter in his professional circles about the plan is favourable.
“But most importantly, I’ve heard from fellow Yukoners interested in a country residential setting to build their future homes and how amazing this opportunity would be for them and their families,” he said.
Robataille acknowledged concerns he had heard about strain on the transit system. He compared the transit situation to that of the Ravens Ridge development and suggested it would not significantly strain the city’s buses. He also said that while this type of development is not a solution to urban sprawl, it has been favoured by Yukoners in the past.
Zoë Morrison, a professional planner hired by the owners of Lobird estates, told the councillors she thinks the work that she and the property owner have done at the site exceeds what is usually required at the OCP stage. She added that grades and ground conditions make 20 to 30 per cent of the site unsuitable for urban development. She said study of the area suggests that about 40 units is the maximum that could be built on the site.
Looking to the future, should the OCP amendment be approved, Morrison said there is opportunity to work with the city, Kwanlin Dün First Nation and others to ensure the plan does not interfere with future development of the area.
Developer Dwight Chalifour also spoke about the sort of homes that could be built on the proposed lots and sketched out another part of his master plan for the area that could see the addition of 63 more mobile homes if city services were extended to the area. He downplayed concerns about traffic, citing the relatively few homes planned.
City corporate services director Valerie Braga noted that the city had received one written submission opposing the project.
The plan will return to council for further consideration at a future meeting.
Contact Jim Elliot at jim.elliot@yukon-news.com