We Must Not Repeat the Mistakes of the 2020 Community Plan

“As demand requires.”

These are three words that have caused nothing but trouble for the growth of Yellowknife’s housing supply and tax base.

Found on page 96 of the now infamous 2020 Community Plan Bylaw (bottom right of the graphic below), they refer to the timing of development of the Con Redevelopment Area, sometimes referred to as the Con/Taylor neighbourhood, the only new greenfield area included in the 2020 Plan.

A Yellowknife City Councillor reading those words in the draft Plan in 2019 might have been reassured by them, thinking that City planners were sensitive to market forces and would move forward once it became clear that demand existed for land for new development. No need to insist on a more specific timeline, one might conclude. The City is on it.

But in fact, the City has very limited tools and expertise for measuring demand. And in 2019, they also had a clear preference for the type of development they wanted to see happen which influenced their perception of demand, or their desire to faithfully respond to it.

With a first draft of the new Community Plan expected in April, it is absolutely critical that Yellowknife City Councillors and development-minded residents watch out for ambiguous statements like “as demand requires” and truly consider the time it would take for the City to react to demand, even if it were in fact properly identified.

Population growth projections and hunches from individual Councillors or planners are not responsible ways to gauge demand. The only responsible way, in my opinion, is to build up a significant inventory of available raw land, and then base your future plans on actual sales. How do you know there is demand for land for single family homes? Because you just sold thirty lots in the last year. That’s not a hunch or a theory, it is empirical evidence.  And because you only have 90 lots remaining and it takes you three to five years to bring a new neighbourhood to market – it is already well past time to get moving.

In April, it is my hope that the “Residential Land Development Sequence” portion of the new Community Plan will be far more detailed and very closely scrutinized.

Final bit of context, it is now 2026, demand has required new land for many years now, and we are still years away from seeing the Con Redevelopment Area brought to market.

Con-Taylor concept presented to Council in 2013