Whitehorse Daily Star

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Mélodie Simard

Proposed rezoning emerges for new downtown fire hall

City council could have zoning approval for a new fire hall in place by early August.

By Stephanie Waddell on June 20, 2018

City council could have zoning approval for a new fire hall in place by early August.

At Monday’s city council meeting, members were presented with the proposed zoning amendments that would allow the proposed firehall to go ahead on part of the former Motorways trucking yard site downtown.

The new structure would be built over five city lots on the site where a city garage currently sits, with access off of Black and Front streets.

The zoning would be be changed from the current Mixed Use Waterfront (CMW) to Public Utilities (PU).

With the building of this fire hall, the current downtown station attached to city hall on Second Avenue would be shuttered.

Mélodie Simard, the city’s planning and sustainability manager, provided a report to council members at their meeting Monday.

She said the current building opened in the 1950s, and is unable to accommodate the existing or future needs of the fire department.

“Through the city building consolidation project, it was determined that a new fire station could be developed at the city-owned garage building in the Motorways area, which would then allow for potential expansion of city hall,” Simard said. (City hall was expanded in the late 1980s.)

“The existing garage could be retrofitted to accommodate future needs of the fire department,” she said.

Along with the rezoning for the fire station, there is a piece of city-owned land that could be used as ATCO Yukon Electric looks to expand infrastructure downtown to accommodate growing needs in the neighbourhood.

“The proposed zone, PU-Public Utilities only allows emergency and protective services and public utilities as principal uses,” Simard noted.

“Emergency and protective services (the land use that allows fire stations) are not a principal use in the CMW zone.

“Furthermore, while public utilities, such as ATCO infrastructure are permitted in any zone, it is more transparent to have the zoning reflect the long-term utility use in this area.”

The station would have direct access onto Black Street with the light signals already in place at Black and Second Avenue.

Under questioning by Coun. Samson Hartland, Simard said it’s expected the traffic signals that are in place could help in improving response times.

Fire trucks could return from calls to the fire hall using Front Street.

“This improves the current situation where a flag person is required to stop traffic and back trucks into the hall from Second Avenue,” Simard’s report stated.

It went on to highlight the importance of having a fire hall in the downtown area

“The relocation of the fire station needs to consider response times for the downtown and Riverdale neighbourhoods,” she said.

“As such, it cannot be moved a significant distance north of its current location. Aside from parks, the city owns very little land in the downtown area, so therefore, the proposed location is the only viable option.”

Council will vote on first reading of the rezoning next week.

If that is approved, a public hearing on the rezoning would be held July 23 with a report on that coming forward the following week.

Second and third readings would then come forward Aug. 6.

If the zoning is passed, the area lots impacted would be reconfigured, resulting in approximately 2,000 square metres of land that could be sold and developed on Front and Black streets.

Comments (1)

Up 16 Down 2

My Opinion on Jun 20, 2018 at 9:27 pm

Funny when other people tried to develop there they could not get Zoning changes, but I guess if you are the City you can do as you please.
I guess all this huge building spree the City is having has no problem falling under sustainability. Makes perfect sense right????

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