5 problems with reviving downtown Yellowknife's 'empty, dead hole'

Yellowknife city councillors had a lively discussion earlier this week about what to do with Yellowknife's "empty, dead hole."

That's how Simon Taylor, a consulting architect hired by the City of Yellowknife, described the parking lot at the corner of Franklin (50) Avenue and 50 Street.

The city wants to transform the lot into a traffic-generating, business-boosting centre of civic life. A plan recently shared with councillors would see the city (and maybe the territorial and federal governments) spend around $4.5 million over the next several years to give the neglected corner lot a Cinderella-like makeover.

The proposed beautifications include:

• a gathering circle surrounding a fire pit
• a plaza doubling as both a space for vendors (food trucks, artists) and the site of celebrations like Canada Day
• an art studio or gallery
• the widening and landscaping of the 50 Street block facing the plaza, which might occasionally be limited to pedestrian traffic
• long-awaited public washrooms  

Under the same plan, the owners of the Centre Square Mall would spend around $2 million (not counting discounts from the city) on plaza-facing store entrances and patios.

But numerous concerns raised by city councillors on Tuesday suggest the city may not succeed in getting part of its 2016 capital budget devoted to the project.

Here are five reasons why.

1. The library's not front and centre

Councillors say the plan lacks an "anchor" — a new building that will lure residents back downtown, especially during the frigid winter months.

During public consultations on what to put on the 50/50 corner, the third most frequently-cited idea (behind an arts and cultural centre and space for street vendors) was a new location for the Yellowknife Public Library.

But the city's plan suggests eventually putting the library on three side-by-side, city-owned lots further down 50 Street, between two of Yellowknife's rowdiest bars, The Raven and The Gold Range.  

Councillor Rebecca Alty has another idea.

"Let's put the anchor on Franklin," she says. "If we've got $4 million to invest in the plaza, let's put that toward the library."

But Taylor says doing that would not exploit the 50/50 lot's full potential.

"If you place an anchor facility there, what you're doing is filling a hole," he says. "The property has shown, over the past several years, potential for all sorts of activities."

2. Yellowknife already has a plaza

Alty suggests she won't support the city's plan, partially because it ignores the Somba K'e Civic Plaza.

The city has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in that park at City Hall, just three blocks from the 50/50 intersection. It has hosted events such as the Yellowknife Farmers Market and Aboriginal Day festivities.

"Somba K'e's four times bigger than this [50/50] lot, and the events being held there are packed and full. So can we possibly bring all those celebrations to a space that's four times smaller?" says Alty.

Taylor says the idea is to bring those kinds of events to a more centrally-located downtown location.

"Somba K'e park is technically not downtown," he says.

But councillor Adrian Bell says many residents said they don't want to see a park on the corner lot.

"They're going to look at this and say, 'OK, you're not calling it a park now, you're calling it a civic plaza,'" he says.

3. Is Centre Square Mall on side?

Councillors Alty, Bussey, Bell and Phil Moon Son all say the city's goal of starting construction next year is premature. Why? Because the owners of the Centre Square Mall — Holloway Lodging Corporation and Slate Retail REIT — have not inked an agreement saying they will carry out the much-needed, $2-million facelift to the mall.

"Right now, there's a lot of verbal commitments, but there's nothing signed," says Bussey.

Without that commitment, says Alty, "it's $4 million of painted concrete and some benches."

Taylor says the malls are interested, especially Holloway Lodging, which owns the part of the mall that would face the civic plaza.

"The larger problem for the [companies] is that we don't have the pedestrian flow through [the mall]," says Taylor.

The 49 Street block on the other side of the mall is home to 1,500 government workers — prime candidates for said pedestrian flow.

But Taylor says the mall owners have watched the city talk for years about downtown revitalization, only to see nothing happen.

"If there's a sign this will move, then they too will engage in this process," says Taylor.

Bell says the city has nothing left to prove to Holloway, having already spent $1.4 million buying the 50/50 lot.

"I think we've put our money where our mouth is."

4. The public washrooms

No councillor is opposing the idea of having public washrooms in downtown Yellowknife. The absence of such a basic service, particularly for the city's homeless, has bedeviled the city for years.

"One of the key issues that came up from the public was the lack of primary human dignity in that there isn't a bathroom for these people to use," says Taylor.  

At the same time, this segment of the city's population — which Taylor hesitates to brand as homeless, preferring to call it "a sort of fluid lot" — is perceived as a threat to downtown businesses.

"The Centre Square Mall views that population as a problem to their commercial interests, as do others in the city," he says.

Moon Son says he's worried bathrooms on the 50/50 lot would become "a congregation area for people who need that facility."

"My concern is, is that fair to the businesses around [there] who have invested an incredible amount of their time and energy and sweat equity into that business? I can't answer that question right now."

The city's plan suggests the bathrooms could be modeled after a bathroom facility on Edmonton's Whyte Avenue. Encased in a transparent enclosure, the bathroom is kept cool enough to deter people from staying inside. It also features sinks and counters too small to allow for the washing of clothing of personal items.

Bell is worried about what other pedestrians will see when their gaze turns to the bathrooms.

"I'm a little bit concerned about the sight lines when folks are walking down Franklin Avenue coming from A&W walking towards the CIBC — that, as they're looking to their left, they're going to be trying to look through what is now going to be a public washroom."

The bathrooms are among the first things the city would like to build, though Taylor acknowledges "the view lines and pedestrian access points" need to be studied more closely.

5. The other pieces of the puzzle 

Bussey says she's hesitant to support the plan in its current form, saying she'd feel better if plans for other key pieces of city-owned downtown land — namely, the space between The Raven and The Gold Range — were further along.

"I'm looking for a commitment on either a long-standing building like the library or an eco-housing project there," she says. "To revitalize the downtown, we need to have both: we need to have development and we need the commercial space.

"For me, this seems to be a lot of piecemealing."

Of course, all of this debate — for a downtown that houses less than five per cent of the city's residents, and not even a quarter of its businesses — could be rendered somewhat obsolete in about a month, after the Yellowknife election.

"Sure, this council can be like, 'This is the best idea ever!'" says Alty. "But then if none of us gets re-elected or the new council comes in and is like, 'No, that's crap.' It's interesting timing."