The city’s plan to sell a Copper Ridge lot to the Yukon government for $1 continues to raise concerns for some city council members.

During Monday evening’s council meeting, two amendments to the enabling bylaw were suggested, but only one passed. 

The city lot is at the south end of Falcon Drive, and it adjoins two lots the Yukon government already owns.

Coun. Dan Boyd has raised concerns about the way the territory would handle the lot for resale for residential development once it gains control of it. He doesn’t want local contractors to miss the opportunity to develop it. He’s concerned the Yukon government could end up selling the land to a contractor in Alberta, as it would be sold to the highest bidder. 

“It could be owned by one developer, and our builders will completely move on from this,” said Boyd. “And as well as local people trying to get into the land lotteries, to get a lot for themselves to build their own house, and that has been a model for 50 years here in the Yukon. That model is about to go out the door with this thing.” 

He believes more work is needed on the proposed lot sale and suggested the city should take its time. 

Coun. Ted Laking said he didn’t disagree with Boyd, but was opposed to the city taking more time for further discussion with the Yukon government, given the severity of the city’s housing needs. The city has already gone through a land use master planning exercise with the government, he noted. 

Mayor Laura Cabott wanted to know what else the city would get after selling the land to the Yukon government for one dollar.

Not only would the city get another piece of public land back with the same amount of green space, said city manager Jeff O’Farrell, but the community would benefit from the housing that’s created. 

An amendment to shorten the construction deadline for the lot from five years to Dec. 13, 2027 was passed. 

Boyd unsuccessfully sought a further amendment to the sale conditions to stipulate that the Yukon government retains the responsibility for the lot’s sale through its land lottery process. 

The first two readings of the legislation were approved Monday. Third and final reading could be at the next full council meeting in two weeks’ time.

“I think we are not really ready for this,” said Boyd. “We don’t really understand how this is going to work, and I’m concerned we may not be making a really good decision here.” 

Coun. Kirk Cameron agreed there remain some grey areas.

“We still have a number of unanswered questions that could be very useful, in that continuing dialogue with the Yukon government moving forward to the date of Dec. 13, 2027,” said Cameron. 

“As we have a known model there that works, and that has been working for decades now, something feels different about this, and yet we have a single finger on what that really looks like.”

Laking told his colleagues “we are in a housing crisis because we are doing things the way that we have done them for a long time. Maybe different is good.

“I don’t think we should be afraid of something because it is different; certainly, there are some valid questions to be answered.”