YK councillors look to alter community plan for private developer

Yellowknife councillors support an amendment to the city’s community plan aimed at making it easier for a private developer to build housing.

During Monday night’s council meeting, a majority of councillors present voted in favour of updating the boundary of a designated “west residential” area in the Kam Lake neighbourhood to include a lot owned by Milan Mrdjenovich.

The Yellowknife developer told councillors his company purchased the land around 15 years ago. Since then, Mrdjenovich said, the company has gone through 10 different development proposals for the property over three city administrations, none of which have come to fruition.

“Our vision was never aligned with whoever’s been planning at the moment,” he said, referring to the city’s plans for the neighbourhood. “Eventually, you just stop trying.”

Mrdjenovich said in the future, he would like to develop housing and commercial properties on his land, which he described as “the last blank canvas in Yellowknife.” He said that would involve a 10-year project from start to finish and require between $85 and $100 million.

“This is an expensive piece of land,” he said, explaining his company is currently paying more than $13,000 a month in taxes for the property and $10,550 a month for the mortgage.

“We want to put this land to work. That’s what we do, we’re developers.”

Mrdjenovich added it is “very, very, very difficult” to build in Yellowknife and his company is turning its attention to the south, where he said there is more available land and opportunity.

‘An innovative step’

Mrdjenovich had not submitted a development application to the city, as is usually the case when councillors deliberate changing bylaws to accommodate development. Instead, the proposal to alter the community plan came from Mayor Rebecca Alty.

City manager Stephen Van Dine said while the proposal was “dialing into a public need and interest” for housing in Yellowknife and “an innovative step,” the approach could create “some interesting risks” for the city.

He said without a development application, council could not guarantee that approving the amendment would result in the desired outcome as downstream processes could require further technical adjustments.

“If council is looking to send a signal that it’s open for business and it’s looking to attract investment, and by this motion allowing such a signal to be sent, that is for council to come to that conclusion and make that determination,” he said.

Van Dine and Mayor Alty noted any future development on the land would still be subject to rezoning and public consultation, among other processes.

“At the end of the day, I think we can choose to sit back and wait patiently for private landowners to go through all the paperwork, pay the fees and then we sit up and start processing it – or we can jump in the driver’s seat, hit the gas and make the amendment to open up more land for housing,” Alty said of why she had proposed the idea.

“We’re doing this tonight for all the current residents struggling to find accommodations and for future residents who will struggle.”

She encouraged residents who have other ideas for process improvements or regulatory changes to speed up housing in Yellowknife to reach out.

Concerns about fairness

Ben Hendriksen was one of two councillors who opposed the amendment.

Hendriksen questioned the potential impact on public confidence, fairness and consistency in the city’s development process. He noted council recently rejected another company’s application to build a work camp that is not currently permitted under the city’s zoning bylaw.

“If it seems like the issue here is something about our process that isn’t allowing developers to build homes in Yellowknife to the speed they need to financially, then the issue there is with the process,” Hendriksen said.

“I don’t think the answer is individual developers coming to councillors or the mayor to circumvent our process that we’ve established in bylaws.”

On Monday evening, councillors supported two further changes to the community plan: to strike the definition of a work camp and consider the re-designation of “special management lands,” or land that is not currently designated for a specific use.

Councillor Rob Warburton, who owns a real estate investment company, said that would make it easier for developers to invest in the city.

City councillors will vote on whether to formally approve the changes to the community plan bylaw on February 24.

Yellowknife city council is planning a more comprehensive review of the community plan over the next 12 to 16 months.

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Correction: February 12, 2025 – 9:31 MT. This article initially stated that councillors approved the amendments to the city’s community plan. In fact, a majority of councillors voted in favour of the amendments. They will vote on whether to formally adopt the changes on February 24.