Iqaluit council gives 116-unit public housing proposal second life
After rejection at committee, councillors to read revised bylaw at future meeting
Iqaluit city council will hear a revised rezoning proposal for this empty lot on Niaqunngusiariaq Road, where Nunavut Housing Corp hopes to build two 58-unit apartment buildings. (File photo by Arty Sarkisian)
A proposed rezoning measure that would enable Nunavut Housing Corp. to build 116 public housing units in Iqaluit will get a second chance after it was rejected by the city’s planning and development committee last week.
Councillors saw a revised proposal Tuesday during their council meeting.
Nunavut Housing Corp. wants to build two five-storey, 58-unit buildings near the bottom of Hospital Hill, where three now-demolished row homes once were. To do so, the land must be rezoned from medium density to high density.
The housing corporation made changes to the proposed development in response to committee feedback, city planning director Mathew Dodds told council Tuesday.
“They have a very aggressive timeline. They want to start construction this year, hence the item coming back to council so quickly.”
The revised bylaw proposal creates additional parking space for all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles.
Coun. Kyle Sheppard, who was not at last week’s planning committee meeting, spoke in favour of the project.
“This is incredibly high-quality housing that’s being proposed for our residents,” he said. “High density is not for everybody, but I think this is a large number of units that are desperately needed by a large segment of the population.”
Council discussed adding a first reading of the new proposed bylaw to Tuesday’s agenda, but councillors Harry Flaherty, Methusalah Kunuk and Simon Nattaq, who opposed the proposal last week, were absent.
“It’s a bit awkward that the people who were most against this aren’t in the room today,” said Coun. Romeyn Stevenson.
Dodds told councillors that moving the vote to a next meeting would not impact the project timeline. Nunavut Housing Corp. aims to get materials into the community this coming sealift and start building in the fall.
Councillors approved a motion recommending that council give first reading to the new rezoning plan at their May 12 meeting. After that, city staff will organize a public hearing.
Dodds also noted that if the bylaw gets approval on second reading, third reading would not happen until council has conditionally approved a development permit for the project.
These are behemoth projects: 2 buildings, five stories, 58 units each. That’s well over 73 units above the medium density threshold.
Yes, we are in a housing crisis. But how often are Inuit concerns/voices built into the City’s General Plan and Zoning By-laws? Or the design of NHC complexes? Couldn’t the design have been made to build 2 buildings with 29 units each and build another complex elsewhere? Or are the buildings so cheaply procured to confine as smallest units as possible to eventually turn to a slum village?
How is it that Iqalummiut are losing so much control over their own priorities. Anywhere from cabins to water use at Sylvia Grinnell, to the lack of designated dog parks so that Inuit can continue utilizing berry picking patches, to not being able to preserve spaces popular for Toonik Tyme or even snowmobile trails and cultural access to shores on the beach. An Inuk has to pay for access to dog team space? It just feels so knee-jerk reactionary if Inuit are understandably reserved with behemoth projects that may not necessarily reflect Iqalummiut’s concerns or needs, or may not even benefit them.
It doesn’t help when Inuit councillors become the scapegoat, and qallunaat are the heros.
Jerry, Jerry, Jerry, jerry…..Iqaluit councillors, you are not the father