Meeting to focus on Schwatka Lake's future
The future of Schwatka Lake will be the subject of a meeting tonight at the Mount McIntyre Recreation Centre as the city continues developing a plan for the lake's western shore.
The future of Schwatka Lake will be the subject of a meeting tonight at the Mount McIntyre Recreation Centre as the city continues developing a plan for the lake's western shore.
"The city recognizes the importance of Schwatka Lake for float plane use,” city officials said in a statement earlier this week.
"The area plan will seek to maintain the lake's aviation function, while improving management policies and exploring potential land and recreational uses.”
The meeting comes after staff began working on the plan last August.
The first part of the project saw background research done on the area.
A number of stakeholder interviews were conducted last month along with an online survey which wrapped up on Tuesday.
"(Tonight's) meeting will connect aviation, marine and recreational users to discuss issues and opportunities for the area,” officials said.
Following tonight's session, city planners will review the input received and research that's been done.
They'll come up with a draft plan that's expected to be available for public review in January, when another meeting will be held to present the plan.
It would then be up to council to decide whether to adopt it.
"The area plan will be followed with potential updates to the Schwatka Lake Waterfront Policy that was adopted by city council in 1999,” officials said.
The five-page policy outlines rules for the aviation and marine businesses that are set up in the area as well as fees that have to be paid to the city for use of the area.
They include a $75 annual fee to use existing docks for float plane or marine purposes and a $1 per square metre of gross floor area fee for a building or dock constructed in the area.
Building permit fees will also apply if the project exceeds 10 square metres.
Tonight's meeting will run from 7:00 to 9:00.
Comments (11)
Up 10 Down 6
Josey Wales on Nov 13, 2013 at 12:17 am
hey Arn...yes I did read the article.
That said, the same machine of lunacy that has done our stellar planning thus far?
honestly they (I believe) couldn't plan a birthday party much less some "grand vision". Oh how splendid of they to recognize the importance of the float planes, next time I visit the nobles in their hideout I'll have to bend down and kiss their boot heels for allowing us this still piece of our northern/Canadian lifestyle.
Why not make a plan on REDUCING our taxes (hey I can still dream eh)...or NOT pissing our money away ever so chronically? So now the city hires staff and runs an awareness campaign on racism?
How might the crats "educate us" on that one? Ya think the vilification of anyone whom appears to be a "European Invader" will lessen...hell no it will ramp up.
As each day goes by up here and I/we see with our own two...WTH does/doesn't happen in our capitol city, makes one sick with disgust.
Wonder how long till we get lobbied to build a tower with a rotating top...or a subway to Marsh lake...just like "we have back home...in Toranta"
There ya go Arn..more Josey pissing and moaning
Up 17 Down 12
Just Say'in on Nov 12, 2013 at 2:16 pm
@Frank White…. Suck it up buddy. We all use the trails. It may be good for you to do your homework and see who built all of these trails you love so much (for yourself). Most were built in the sixties and seventies by ….wait for it…. motorcyclists and snowmobilers. The main connectors were built prior to that by the military, wood cutters and mining exploration. As far as I know Millennium was one of the few trails made by the city and it encompassed existing trails such as the 1898 wooden railway. You do not own, nor do you have exclusive rights to any of them.
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Frank White on Nov 12, 2013 at 5:49 am
I do not want my neighbourhood to look like Ontario or Riverdale for that matter and especially not like Whisle Bend.
I want the city to chill a little and use longer term planning that makes sense. This requires standing up to lobby groups which are looking very narrowly at their interests.
This article is about planning but somehow the city comes up short far too often. Mistakes made elsewhere seem to be far too common here in Whitehorse.
I am not an ATV or skidoo hater; my concern is that their trails are often in areas with high values for other trail uses and the city is going too far to accommodate them.
If you want a quiet nice walking trail there should be one close to your home with all the green space in this city. This is not too much to ask for, it should be a basic right associated in living in the wilderness city.
Up 19 Down 12
Josey Wales on Nov 11, 2013 at 7:12 pm
@Atom...Unfortunately your so correct it is indeed sad. Ever watch "Alone in the wilderness"? Try pulling that simplistic move in today's Yukon, fined, jailed, tazed, ticketed, picketed, YESAB, CPAWS, UFA, Friends of NIMBY...all of that and much more would enter ones life.
Imagine eh... if you will that within ONE generation we became a place full of "Nanny Stater's" enough rules to overwhelm a team of lawyers...run outta land, and now apparently "need" a plan for the lake?
No imagining required...it has come, and we let it?
Anyone else out there miss "The Yukon"?
Up 6 Down 8
Arn Anderson on Nov 11, 2013 at 10:25 am
Anyone read the article? Too much BS about nothing. Please read the article.
Up 23 Down 4
Sylvia Burkhard on Nov 11, 2013 at 4:57 am
Folks won't be happy till the Yukon looks like Ontario, all prettied up and paved and planned....so sad.
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Atom on Nov 10, 2013 at 5:17 am
Frank.....duke and Martin would have said...why can't folks drive orvs and snow machines around the city?...they always have.....it's the folks who hate them for some unbelievably idealistic reason...or just the fact those folks come from TO and don't understand.....
The Yukon is embarrassingly becoming a place where folks can't do anything anymore.....why plan anything just so nothing can happen.....!
Up 13 Down 16
Frank White on Nov 10, 2013 at 4:53 am
Planning somehow does not seem to go with the word city here in Whitehorse. City planning, an oxymoron for sure in this town?
Why can't there be an agenda to protect what we have and use sustainable development that protects natural areas in the city?
The city has many strategies and plans but always seem to want to put paved trails and motorized off road vehicles everywhere. It seems like elitist bullies somehow pay more taxes that people like me who like quiet areas- the city is pandering to people who drive ORVs and skidoos. On the roads, on the sidewalks, late at night, usually with no safety gear. And the dogma about out and away trails, and all the training and insurance and nonsense about making these vehicles legal and safe?
I wish Duke or Murray Martin where around when the city was developing the ATV and skidoo bylaws. These men have wisdom and experience and would have stopped the nonsense.
Up 22 Down 8
Jackie Ward on Nov 9, 2013 at 10:35 pm
Here's an idea, LEAVE IT ALONE. No one in this town has shown they have any level of competence when it comes to land planning. LEAVE IT ALONE.
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Josey Wales on Nov 8, 2013 at 11:23 pm
Hey North of 60..."Let's not forget that these are the same governmental bureaucratic bumblers..."
Why the hat trick of redundancy?
your spot on too, it like most anything "they" are involved with...will be a complete circus full of clowns and white elephants even with music.
...coming to a community near by.
Funny thing though in "planning" a school thus far, seems those involved in the "planning" process...never actually went to one prior...clearly.
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north_of_60 on Nov 7, 2013 at 12:22 pm
Let's not forget that these are the same governmental bureaucratic bumblers who gave us the inadequate designs for the jail, two new hospitals, whistle bend, etc... so we shouldn't get our hopes up that this won't be fup-duck too.