November 19, 1998

Iqaluit trailer park expansion gets green light

Plan may provide affordable housing alternative for would-be homeowners.

Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Iqaluit Town Council is pushing ahead with plans to expand the community's only trailer park in the hopes of alleviating some of the pressure on the local housing supply.

Councillors passed a number of zoning bylaws last week that clear the way for further development of the existing trailer park on the Federal Road across from Baffin Building Systems' headquarters.

"I think what we want to provide is an option for potential homeowners," Councillor Mathew Spence said. "Everybody recognizes that the cost of housing is very high, and if people can find a lower cost alternative to a stick built house, then fine. Let's provide them with some opportunities to do that."

The last thing Iqaluit needs is more people who find they have no alternative than to live in storage sheds.

"The issue for the Town is we don't like to people living down on the beach because of the danger that poses for them," Spence said.

Baffin Building Systems won a $99,000 contract to carry out development work in the area that will roughly double the number of residential lots available to future trailer owners.

Trailers are considered cheaper than conventional houses, and maybe the only way many would-be homeowners can ever afford to get into the private housing market.

At the same time, Spence said that the Town wants to prevent future trailer owners from plunking down their trailer homes on properties zoned for residential construction, such as in the new subdivision in Tundra Valley.

Old RCMP housing units along Federal Road are classified as trailer units, and anyone who acquires one as a residential unit in the future would be required under the current zoning bylaws to settle it on a lot in the designated trailer park.