Residents raise concerns as Iqaluit council backs idea to rezone areas for housing
Proposed rezoning would allocate land in Tundra Valley, Tundra Ridge for potential single-family homes
This green space in Iqaluit’s Tundra Ridge is at the centre of a proposed rezoning for future housing. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Despite some residents speaking against the idea, Iqaluit city council has voted to move forward on a proposed rezoning of open land in the Tundra Ridge and Tundra Valley areas.
The proposed bylaws would rezone two areas currently designated as open space to be a residential community, which would provide room for single-family homes and be serviced by trucks. Final approval by council is still required.
A public hearing took place at the council chambers before the July 23 city council meeting. City planner Mathew Dodds presented some of the issues and concerns raised during public engagement sessions over the past few months.
He said that people city staff spoke to were “generally excited” about the possibility of more single-family homes in the community.
However, residents of nearby areas had some concerns.
“They expressed concerns with the obstruction of their views, the loss of green space near their homes, concerns of snowmobile and ATV trails being compromised by development, the overcrowding of local schools and more,” Dodds told councillors.
“Staff certainly sympathize with the residents who feel negatively affected by the proposed development, but we did discuss things like the benefits of [the idea], which include walkability, connectedness, more manageable servicing, better transit planning in the future if we choose to have transit, affordability and most important, the management of sprawl.”
Dodds read six emails received from local residents, which echoed the concerns he highlighted.
Another concern raised by some was that the consultations were held during the summer, when many people are on vacation or are out on the land.
One resident joined in on Zoom to express opposition.
Among seven members of the public who attended the hearing, resident Andrew Card was the only person to share his opinion on the proposal — one of support.
He said he was looking for a single-family home in the city.
“I definitely hear everyone’s concerns with the area and the impacts to the place, but being a person looking for a home, the opportunity seems exciting to me,” Card told councillors.
When the item came up during the council meeting, Coun. Kyle Sheppard emphasized that at the current stage, council is voting to make the land available for housing and development. He said council is not yet at the stage of granting a development permit for the site.
Sheppard said a lot of the concerns raised by residents can be “mitigated,” and that any development in the city will have an impact on neighbours.
He also emphasized the need for more housing in Iqaluit.
“With the acute housing crisis that we have, for lack of a better term, the stance that we’ve taken is housing by any means necessary, and I firmly believe in that and our ability to develop more housing needs to come by nearly any means necessary,” Sheppard said.
“For the families in our city who are here now and those who move here eventually, the provision of that housing is more important to me than the concerns that were raised tonight.”
Coun. Romeyn Stevenson also voiced his support.
“I do think that it’s extremely important that we find places to develop where we can,” Stevenson said.
“We can make ways of developing this area that make it so that it is – while providing new lots – still satisfactory to the community around it.”
On second reading, councillors voted unanimously in favour of two bylaws: the first will redesignate the lands from “open space” to “residential community,” and the second will rezone the areas from “open area” to “low-density residential trucked services.”
Those bylaws are due to be considered on third and final reading at a future council meeting.
There goes your million dollar view, what a bummer eh? But housing is needed in the city, I would suggest you take a pictures of your current view because all you will have is walls obstruction to the beautiful Frobisher Bay.
I highly doubt that views of the frobisher bay will be obstructed for the homes already built, – on top – , of the hill, as the new zoning areas are below them on a steep decline, meters away from their backyards. It will be a collection of single-family homes and not a menagerie of multi-story complexes that reach for the sky.
As for the “overcrowded schools” argument; this is a growing city and a collection of multi-story complexes with hundreds of units have been approved and zoned by the city, so I’m not sure how a handful of single-family homes will negatively impact that. Additionally, why not just build another educational facility if it does get to the point of compacity?
There goes your green grass, $$$ spent on a unit is not worth it. looking just root tops and parts of FB. the city needs at least two rows of housing units to justify the development cost.
About 10 years ago I was looking for a place to build my house in Iqaluit. I asked the City Planning Department about these areas and was told that “wind studies had been done and these areas were not suitable for house construction”.
Have the winds changed, perhaps due to global warming?
If not, what has changed?
“and I firmly believe in that and our ability to develop more housing needs to come by nearly any means necessary,” Sheppard said…that’s a dangerous logic to apply to development. This kind of thinking and classic city council reactionism may well lead to condos being built at Sylvia Grinnell…stop voting for this Qallunaat.
There’s already a mini village of shacks at the river, condos would at least look nicer.
Dear Deafears, I agree with your logic wholeheartedly, but ending your comment by slurring race debases you and your comment irreparably. Leave the non-sense out.
Take a good long look in the mirror, and say to yourself, “This is the face of a racist”.
Unless, of course, you are okay with me expressing my disagreement with some of PJ’s policies and ending my comments with, “Stop voting for this Inuk”.
Your call.
PS. Incidentally, Qallunaat is seen by many as an offensive racial slur.
Why is the word ‘Qallunaat’ seen as a offensive racist slur? Do you have a better word for Qallunaat in Inuktitut? Do you see Black, Italian, Chinese, Hispanic, etc as racist slurs? Pretty much the same, but a different language. Every language has a name for a race, why are the inuktitut ones considered racist?
It is not a slur in and of itself. The same way inuk, black, Asian, etc are not slurs. But when used on a way that is demeaning (e.g. don’t vote for that qallunaq), it is very much racist. Imagine someone didn’t like an inuk councilor and said “don’t vote for that inuk councilor”. That would be seen as racist, no?
So Here’s An Idea said: PS. Incidentally, Qallunaat is seen by many as an offensive racial slur. How is that word racist offensive word? It’s a name to a race in a different language. I understand it can be used as a raciest slur when used in a demeaning sentence.
I don’t think the word Qallunaat is necessarily offensive, but it can be used in a way that is offensive, such as we see above, to single out a persons race in order to condemn them. I believe that is called racism.
I recommend ᐱᐳ (Pipu). Rough translation of the English word “people” into Inuktitut sounds, plus in English sounds like “Pee Poo”, which is hilarious.
“PS. Incidentally, Qallunaat is seen by many as an offensive racial slur”
By who?…white people?. Ah yes…another condescending person virtue signalling. While you collect your 100K off the backs of Inuit trauma.
Are you one of the same people the eat at Discovery for you $300.00 talking up how you help the Inuit…while criticizing them picking up butts outside the windows? of course your not. I bet you don’t order items online from the Hudson Bay company either.
Iqaluit is blessed to have you here!
If you’re on Income Assistance with a family of 4, you get $22,080 per year (Iqaluit amount). You also have an untaxed benefit of a subsidized 2 or 3 bedroom house for $60/month and have to pay minimal or no utility costs. If you consider the cost of a mortgage or market rent, plus market rate utilities, that’s about $30-$35,000/year you’re not paying, pre-tax let’s $45,000. You’re also receiving the Canada Child Benefit (“child tax”), somewhere from $13,140-$15,574 for 2 kids. You’re allowed to earn about $5,000 in a year before your income assistance is reduced.
Congratulations! You also make $100k/year! Off the backs of… wait, who?
I appreciate Loaded Shoulders comments when this may seem like the ideal circumstance.
Having interacted with the homeless, under housed, at risk of homeless here in Iqaluit, there are many individuals that have limited to no access to income streams, or government benefits beyond single assistance. There are many individuals that do work at the shelter, but the cost and availability of housing does present it own challenges
I have seen this lack of access to financial resource and housing effect elders and the young alike. Sadly, in some cases the mental health and addictions being experienced are so great, housing and other stability supports may never be realised.
I don’t think it is about who is making a 100 off who and why…I know there are a lot of hard working people here, who care deeply abut the issues of finance, training, housing and health care.
I feel we should focus less on who and why we think people are getting paid. Maybe focus on the value the community gets and results we can achieve in building the best Iqaluit.
Oh no! People are gonna lose their nice views and green spaces (in a place where if you walk 20 minutes in any direction you’ll likely end up in a green space)! Such a tragedy to build houses in a place with a housing crisis.
Agreed. Less than 5 minutes everywhere outside of the core of the town.
The importance of green spaces within the city should be understood, appreciated and not overlooked. It’s not enough to say people can just walk outside the city limits.
There’s plenty of green spaces in town. Housing is more important.
False dichotomy betrays simple mindedness.
City in the past: We should designate this as open space. It’s important for cities to commit to having some little patches of open space as they grow. It’s good for flood mitigation and noise reduction. Green spaces have been shown to reduce resident stress levels, improve symptoms of mental illness such as anxiety and depression, reduce cardiovascular disease, reduce obesity, reduce mortality from all causes, improve birth outcomes, and improve social cohesion.
City now: Must cram in houses to reduce “sprawl”, in the name of “connectedness” and “more manageable servicing”, even though we will use trucked services rather than build appropriate infrastructure.
Iqaluit is so funny. They don’t want new housing! They don’t want developers to make 8 story buildings, they don’t want single dwellings homes built where their dogs can poop. LOL!
I want remind you that 90% of people here in Iqaluit aren’t from Iqaluit. They move here from another place with baggage
These councillors are not respecting what the residents are voting on. Only 1 person agree and he doesn’t even live in the area. The noise, the overcrowding of boats, snowmobiles, etc, nevermind the views. We need housing, yes, but build it by AWG as it’s on trucked service anyways, why build in this small parcel of green space? Matthew dodds is a young guy who will not stick around to see the impact of this. Stop trying to just add stuff to your resume while impacting long time residents!
Residents were not happy when they created Road to Nowhere. Residents were not happy about plateau. The residents were not happy about lower Plateau. The city want to put new housing where dog poop, residents are not happy. Iqaluit residents need to get off their high horse.
To be fair, the traffic on the Plateau is terrible. If there were more routes in and out it would be a lot nicer to live in.
This is just a not in my backyard argument.
This is not the council siding with one person. One person may have opposed the 6 other opinions but that doesn’t mean he is the only one who thinks it is a good idea. Iqaluit needs housing and the city has to balance the need for housing and not developing so quickly that it devalues the current real estate. there is so much land to be developed but with the current infrastructure council is limited on where this development makes sense for providing services.
There are beautiful spots and whole communities that can be build along the road to the new dump yet the infrastructure can not support it currently.
who has popcorn?………. Nunatsiaq news is the new rant and rave….you guys have so much to say but cant show up to the city meetings?… if you dont like it vote for someone else or leave..
More single family homes that will probably cost a cool million or more is not what Iqaluit needs or what most can afford. What about building affordable homes for the overcrowding in social housing. Small houses, town houses, condos, places that are affordable for the average citizen.
The public won’t be funding these million dollar homes, so it doesn’t take away from public housing.
Also, the people buying these homes might move out of staff housing, freeing some of that stock up for others to use.
There are lots of people who could afford market homes, but stay in staff housing because it’s so much cheaper, or there are simply no options available.
Except that there is only a very small amount of people who can afford to buy these houses as they are surely over a $1million. And those people are not the ones who will want to put roots down in Iqaluit either. The town has gone to the dogs with its endless crime that goes without punishment. The city should look into building more staff housing, it is very much needed and the probably make that a money maker.
It’s about time that the city get its act together
There is so much land they need to start building a mile or two outside of road to nowhere
Or tar inlet
We are to squeezed in with the town growing
Did the city think if they build those extra homes in tundra valley area that JOAMIE SCHOOL IS FULL. How about the students
They need to make new subdivisions further away from town build a whole new section properly
Iqaluit is so different from the rest of Nunavut it’s also so disconnected to the rest of Nunavut’, it’s really too bad Iqaluit was chosen to be the capital as it does not represent Nunavut very well.
Whatever is being discussed for development, either for land development, regulations, policies so on, it has to be done in a way where it’s made more complicated and dragged on.
It’s like anything positive has to be stripped away and find anything negative that will be used instead.
It’s such a funny place where everything is overly complicated and expensive and only certain people can do the work.
It’s not wonder why our capital is dragging the rest of Nunavut down with it.
Right…because decentralization of the GN worked out so well…
What are the reasons it wasn’t used in the past for housing, has there been a geotechnical study of that spot?
Y’know… any citybuilder game tells you how bad it is to cram too much, too close…
Maybe take some lessons there? Just build another new subdivision winging out on one of the outskirts of the city, and make a PROPER subdivision of it. A little grocery store, a new school if needed, etc.