The owners of the Lobird Mobile Home Park want to provide a residential development on 70 acres of their own land, but they need assurances from the city.

Sean O’Donnell addressed city council at its meeting Monday during the second public hearing into the proposed update on the city’s Official Community Plan (OCP).

O’Donnell said he was appearing on behalf of the Lobird Living Corp. and the two owners of Lobird.

The resident of McRae said they are happy to see the OCP identify the south growth area south of Copper Ridge as the area where residential expansion is slated to occur.

The Lobird Park, he said, has a plan to provide up to 350 mobile homes or modular homes on its 70 acres in the area if they can get assurances the city will bring in water and sewer services.

“We have a lot of plans for developing our 70 acres in the next 10 years and will be investing over $2.2 million of our own money for the infrastructure: power, water, sewer, fibre optic cable on our land,” O’Donnell told council.

He said they also plan to build two play parks and possibly a section for seniors.

Phases two, three and four will be a mix of affordable mobile or modular homes, he said.

O’Donnell told council there is a high demand for affordable housing with an aging population and young families moving in.

“We have seen demand first-hand,” he said. “We receive calls every day from people to see if there is any lots or space for mobile homes.”

O’Donnell said it was a pleasure discussing their plans with Chief Doris Bill of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation who, he said, shares their vision for affordable housing in the area.

Affordable housing is helpful with the increased cost of living and higher mortgage rates consumers are currently facing, he told council.

“We want to help everybody have a chance to own a home.”

O’Donnell said the new mobile homes or modular homes provide an environmentally friendly and affordable option for addressing the housing shortage in a timely manner.

The new homes, he said, meet high CSA A277 modular standards for energy efficiency, and have Arctic packages available.

“They are very well-insulated, they come with triple-pane windows and we have our 70 acres available to install up to 350 mobile homes,” he said.

O’Donnell said the land south of Copper Ridge is flat, developable land that is not in conflict with green space or recreation space.

“We hope the city will proceed with bringing water and sewer to us,” he said. “This will allow us to accommodate development of our property.”

The project would also allow Lobird Park to install a few fire hydrants in the existing park that is currently unserviced, he said.

“Phase two, three, and four on Lobird estates will be a beautiful community with breathtaking views, relaxing hiking trails and very close to downtown,” he said. “It’s a great place for a balance of living.”

He emphasized they would like to provide affordable housing, which would be possible if they had access to municipal water and sewer services.

Coun. Ted Laking said it was exciting to have the developable land there, and it would be great to see new housing enter the market.

Laking asked O’Donnell when they might start seeing the new homes come available.

O’Donnell said they have hit a bit of a snag as Lobird is currently serviced with a four-inch water main, and they would be required to have six-inch service.

“In a perfect world, our phase two plan would start in 2023 and end in 2026,” he said. “That is very ambitious on our part.”

He said they could move quickly, but could not actually place any mobile units on the property until they had water and sewer service from the city.

Before Lobird spends any money on the proposal, they would need to know more about time lines and if the city is even willing to bring water and sewer to the area, he said.

O’Donnell said they are also at the mercy of the manufactured homes industry, as the homes would be coming from B.C., Alberta and possibly Alaska.

Building the homes in Whitehorse would be a benefit to the local economy, but given the shortage of contractors and the amount of work going on in the Yukon, they realized buying from Outside would speed up the timeline and allow people to get into new homes sooner, he said.

O’Donnell reiterated they can’t spend any money on infrastructure if they do not have anywhere to hook into.

There was no indication from members of council regarding O’Donnell’s request, and one was not expected, as it was a public hearing.