City council has put off its decision on rezoning the property at 478 Range Rd. to enable city staff to look at other ways the parking requirements can be met for the site.

At Monday evening's council meeting, members voted unanimously to defer the decision.

They did so after a number of councillors brought forward concerns over the potential for future expansion of the building if it was rezoned from its current Neighbourhood Commercial to Mixed Use Commercial 1.

The mixed-use zoning would allow the building's site coverage to expand to 90 per cent of the property, the height to rise to a maximum of 20 m and drop the parking requirement from 19 spots to six. There are currently 13 spots for parking.

Coun. Doug Graham said he has no doubt the current owner – Borud Enterprises – would stick to its promise not to expand the size of the building. However, he argued, it's impossible to predict whether new owners would keep the building at its current size if it was ever sold.

Borud sought the rezoning after new office tenants in the building increased the required number of spots. Previously, the only tenant in the building was the Downtown Days child care centre, and all the parking requirements were met with the 13 spots currently there.

As Dave Borud, one of the partners in Borud Enterprises, told council during a presentation last night, the planning department had advised him to seek the rezoning after he had originally asked if the city could relax the parking requirements for the site after renovations had been done to the parts of the building where offices now are.

Now it appears the city may do just what Borud had originally asked for.

It was only after Borud had done the paperwork to make the renovations for offices that he learned of the increased parking requirements.

"The building complies with everything except this,” he said.

There have been no parking issues to date at the building, which already has 24 parents who drop off and pick up their kids through the week, he said.

Questioned by council members, he said the company's other option would be to put an encumbrance on the property next door and provide parking there.

"Naturally, we'd rather not do that,” Borud said.

Doing so would come with an additional expense of paving the other property as required for parking, he said, and the company was also planning to use that land for the next phase of the Takhini Place condos.

Borud argued that in cases where there may be overflow parking, there is ample space on Range Road to accommodate it.

"The width is there,” he told council of the road shoulder.

The only time there may be overflow is when the Northern Safety Network Yukon, one of the building's tenants, is providing a training course.

That would see a maximum of 35 people between two courses at any one time with courses typically happening between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., Nick Tilgner, the Northern Safety Network Yukon's executive director, told council. He displayed a photograph of the site during the same hours with no parking on Range Road.

"We don't impact traffic flow,” Tilgner argued in a presentation to council.

One of the reasons the organization relocated to the building is because of the parking situation.

And if the issue can't be resolved, it may have to consider moving once again, Tilgner added.

As it came up for second reading, Coun. Dave Stockdale was the first to voice his opposition to the rezoning, given the possibility of future changes to the building.

He then questioned whether the city could simply have a period where it doesn't enforce its bylaw on parking and see if any complaints come the city's way.

As Graham and Mayor Bev Buckway argued though, it is council that makes up city policies and bylaw staff who enforce those policies. There is no alternative but to enforce bylaws, he said.

"I don't see that as an alternative,” he said of Stockdale's suggestion.

Coun. Florence Roberts then questioned how difficult it would be to put a condition on the zoning that would allow the building to have just the current 13 parking spaces while retaining all the other regulations of the Neighbourhood Commercial zone.

She said she would rather do that than change the zoning.

While most other councillors agreed, Coun. Betty Irwin argued developers should have to meet the parking requirements of the zones.

"Nineteen spaces are required; that is the law,” she said.

Coun. Dave Austin finally made the motion to defer a decision, with Buckway stating that in any case, city staff should speak with Borud about coming up with another alternative.

Council then voted in favour of deferring, which means the matter will come back to council in a couple of weeks.

Borud could not be reached for comment this morning.