{"id":824269,"date":"2026-07-25T01:21:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T01:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/824269\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T01:21:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T01:21:28","slug":"expansion-plan-for-yellowknifes-kam-lake-area-met-with-skepticism-from-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/824269\/","title":{"rendered":"Expansion plan for Yellowknife’s Kam Lake area met with skepticism from residents"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

The city of Yellowknife presented its concept plan to expand the Kam Lake neighbourhood at an open house Thursday evening to a room of about 30 residents.<\/p>\n

The plan includes about 68 hectares set aside for light industrial and commercial development, urban agriculture and public utilities.<\/p>\n

“Yellowknife is indeed growing and we’re trying to respond to that growth with a little bit of planning,” said city manager Stephen Van Dine.<\/p>\n

\"AThe city of Yellowknife displayed posters of its proposed Kam Lake Area Development Plan at Thursday evening’s open house. (Sarah St-Pierre\/CBC)<\/p>\n

The plan also includes a strip where business owners could live, a narrow buffer for the Grace Lake neighbourhood and an area set aside for a wetland and surrounding trails.<\/p>\n

Residents at the open house largely met the plan with skepticism and had many questions for city staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some raised concerns about drainage into the wetland, and others wanted the Grace Lake buffering to be wider.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City staff told residents the development would value protecting the wetland, but detailed planning on how that would be done would come later.<\/p>\n

Some asked why the area did not include more housing, given the city’s repeated claims that it lacks land to build housing on<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Van Dine said the city’s upcoming revised community plan would address those concerns.<\/p>\n

“Some of those bigger questions around housing, where it’ll go, where the city is going to grow and how we’re going to manage that growth will be in that conversation,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Van Dine also said the city has undertaken a market study that determines that light industrial and commercial land is in fact needed for new development. He said the city anticipates the Kam Lake expansion would satisfy that demand for the next 10 to 15 years.<\/p>\n

Resident Michael Corey said he was interested in the development of the area because he would potentially be interested in purchasing land in the yet-undeveloped area, if it’s priced accessibly.<\/p>\n

“I’m looking to expand my business and currently I find it difficult to do that,” he said. “The cost of land specifically in Yellowknife and the availability of land is slim.”<\/p>\n

\"AYellowknife resident Michael Corey said he was interested in the development of the area because he would potentially be interested in purchasing land in the yet-undeveloped area. (Allister Mccreadie\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Next, city council will review the plan and public feedback at a committee meeting in August. Changes to the plan may come afterward, and whatever version is set for adoption would get another opportunity for input from residents at a public hearing.<\/p>\n

The plan would then go on to the subdivision stage, which involves approval from the territorial government. Because of the external input, Van Dine said the timeline to see construction in the area is still a few years away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-824269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}