City launches ‘Intensification First’ strategy

The City of Yellowknife is hoping to promote the benefits of intensification, or denser development of existing municipal land before increasing urban sprawl.

The city launched its Intensification First strategy earlier this month to increase public awareness of what intensification is and why the city is pursuing it.

“We knew that there were some residents in Yellowknife where the notion of intensification was still a bit of a foreign concept and were nervous about it,” city manager Stephen Van Dine told Cabin Radio.

“It’s reinforcing, I think, the direction that we are going and trying to get more information in the public domain around some of the upsides that we didn’t have a chance to talk about before.”

Mohammad Alam, the city’s manager of planning and environment, said Yellowknife has a housing shortage as well as limited residential land to develop.

The city continues to work with the territorial government on the transfer of land but Alam said that process takes time.

He said other land the city owns also requires long-term work before it can be developed.

For instance, city councillors recently discussed whether to proceed with a new area development plan for a parcel of undeveloped land in Kam Lake. City staff said that is just the beginning of the development process and it will take years before the area could see any development.

“It is acknowledged by everybody that it is difficult to get land to develop, so we have to go smarter and provide a solution that is efficient,” Alam said.

He said that’s where intensification comes in.

“It is one of the only available options that we have right now, to focus on what we have at this moment and how we can develop those through intensification.”

‘A very innovative process’

Examples of intensification given in the strategy include developing a fourplex on a vacant lot or converting a single detached home into a duplex or triplex.

The city is currently considering rezoning five vacant lots on Gitzel Street to allow for the development of duplexes, fourplexes or sixplexes.

Several councillors expressed support for the proposal at a Tuesday meeting, alongside a desire to address concerns raised by some residents.

“I’m very excited to finally see some land getting closer to coming to market,” said Rob Warburton.

“This is not a subtle shift, this is like tens and tens of thousands of dollars not spent on the front of a project … this is really accessible to a lot of local developers.”

Tom McLennan also said he supports a streamlined process to develop slightly more dense housing in the area.

“I, from the beginning, have always supported intensification within neighbourhoods,” Garett Cochrane said.

“This could be a very innovative process that could make a real change in our overall ability to address the housing crisis while keeping it within the character of the neighbourhood.”

While some Yellowknife residents have pushed back against intensification in their neighbourhoods, Alam said the approach has benefits.

One of the most obvious, he said, is the ability to offer more housing options.

He added intensification makes use of existing city infrastructure and services, can revitalize neighbourhoods and support local businesses. He said it can also reduce people’s carbon footprint by promoting walking, biking and public transportation.

“All those things cumulatively will have an impact,” he said.

Yet Alam acknowledged there may be valid concerns over issues such as traffic, parking and changing a neighbourhood’s character.

He said those can be concerns with any proposed development and the city will work to address site-specific issues while balancing the need for more housing.

Van Dine pointed to work on a master transportation plan for the city as one tool to tackle some of those concerns more broadly.

Missing middle housing

The city manager said while single-family homes with lots of space were historically the norm in Yellowknife, that’s becoming more costly and is not what every resident wants.

Van Dine said intensification will help address the need for “missing middle housing” in the city, or medium-density housing options in between single-family homes and mid-rise apartment buildings, such as duplexes and fourplexes.

“We’re encouraging people to ask the questions, to come out, let us know. We’ll adapt and adjust as necessary. But at the same time, we’re also trying to raise the level of awareness of the costs associated with different home ownership models,” he said.

According to the results of the 2024 NWT Community Survey, which were released earlier this year, the Yellowknife area was the only region in the NWT where affordability was cited as the main housing issue.

More than 14 percent of households in the area reported spending 30 percent or more of their income on shelter costs.

A housing needs study completed for the City of Yellowknife last year found the municipality may have to house 1,060 additional households by 2035.

The study projected that couples without children, single-parent families and non-census families – such as one person living alone or two or more roommates living together – will make up a larger proportion of households by 2035.

The report found that in 2021, two-person households accounted for 31 percent of households in the city, one-person households accounted for 24 percent, three-person households 18 percent, four-person households 17 percent and households with five or more people 10 percent.

Nearly half of Yellowknife’s households rented their housing.

One piece of the puzzle

Intensification is not a new concept and has been part of the city’s development plans for some time.

City councillors unanimously backed an infill housing plan in January 2023, citing an “essential” need to develop housing.

Intensification is one of the commitments the city made as part of receiving federal housing funding last year, councillors have approved new residential intensification zones, and the city offers development incentives including an intensification servicing grant.

Alam said the city plans to develop a more robust intensification policy and targets as part of a “comprehensive review” of Yellowknife’s community plan. He noted that intensification will not apply to every area of the city.

Van Dine stressed that intensification and missing-middle housing are not the only type of development the city is pursuing.

“It’s not an either-or, it’s an and,” he said, adding the city has not lost sight of the need for more single-family homes.

“In the case of the missing middle, it’s where we need to throw a little bit of extra energy just to make sure that we’re able to catch up in that space.”

Alam added that, as part of the community plan update, the city will identify land for future development.

“Intensification itself cannot solve all the problems, it is just part of the whole puzzle,” he said.