One year later: Where is Yellowknife's tiny home neighbourhood?

It's been more than a year since Etienne Croteau pitched the idea of a tiny home neighbourhood in Yellowknife, but, despite interest from the city, the project is nowhere to be seen.

"I asked them, 'Where is the project?' and they said to me 'Be patient, Etienne, we hear you,'" said Croteau.

But Croteau has not given up hope. He said he believes city administration is working hard to make the project happen.

"I definitely think it's going to happen, especially because of the survey."

'A small home vision for Yellowknife'

In May, the City of Yellowknife conducted a survey of residents' interest and opinions in small lot development to help it "articulate a small home vision for Yellowknife."

The survey garnered 465 responses — more than double the average number of responses compared to similar surveys conducted over the past three years.

More than 85 per cent of the people who responded supported or strongly supported developing an area of the city for small homes.

A wide variety of locations were suggested, including downtown, Kam Lake, Bartram Court, and Old Town.

The majority of respondents suggested mixing small homes in established neighbourhoods and subdividing existing lots, while a lot downtown was the second most popular choice.

The cost of lots, access to piped water/sewer services and proximity to stores and services were cited as the most important factors when considering locations, and nearly 50 per cent of respondents who were interested or very interested in living in a small home zone said their maximum lot price is under $50,000.

However, what city administration is doing with the results of that survey is less clear.

In an email, a spokesperson for the city told CBC "the city is still working on the tiny home idea/concept and is not able to discuss at this time."

'It's a very exciting idea'  

Coun. Adrian Bell said he fully supports the idea of a tiny home neighbourhood, but added "these are not things you can move quickly on."

"We have a whole bunch of different things to sort out with respect to what these tiny homes might look like, like whether they would have foundations or not, what the costs might actually be in terms of putting services in."

Bell also cited a scarcity of available land as a challenge to pushing the project ahead.

"As you may know from watching Yellowknife land development, we don't have many options when it comes to development at all, so just getting our hands on a piece of land can take five years."

Proposed lot 'wasn't the right location,' says Bell

In March, city council unanimously approved a first reading of the design scheme for the Hordal Bagon single family residential subdivision — near the Kam Lake subdivision — and voted to put construction work out to tender.

At that council meeting, city administration suggested including zoning to allow tiny homes, but, according to minutes from the meeting "council advised that it [did] not want administration to conduct public consultation for tiny homes specific to the Hordal/Bagon subdivision."

Bell said it "just wasn't the right location.

"It's quite far from the downtown; it's far from amenities. I don't think it's ideal in terms of where tiny home owners would want to be located."

Bell said tiny home dwellers would have been forced to "rely on vehicles" to get around.

"I mean it sounds silly, but there might even be some two vehicle families in tiny homes, and that's certainly not what you're looking for when you're pursuing that model.

"It increases the cost of living and doesn't have the same carbon footprint benefits."

Bell said he doesn't think "[council] has had any discussions about this since the March meeting," but is confident that the idea is still being explored.

"At some point in the future, at some location in town, it would be very interesting to see what we can do."