Yellowknife, N.W.T. - Making the downtown core of Yellowknife more vibrant after normal business hours is a part of the plan for the city's Smart Growth Committee.

They've been focusing on large, new business buildings downtown and as a part of an amendment to the city's bylaws they would like to see some kind of commercial space on the floor level of the developments.

Councilor Bob Brooks agreed with the amendments to the zoning by-law, because of the expected growth of downtown.

"We are expecting somewhere in the range of 900 new residences that will be in this city in the next three years, and many of those will be in the downtown core, and that could be a population increase of anywhere from 1000 to 4000 people just in those residences that were talking about."

But not everyone agreed with the amendment.

Councilor Mark Heyck said the change will not have the desired effect.
"In reality, if that commercial space ends up being retail space, then there's every possibility that it's not open any longer than the office building above it, in which case it's not really achieving, I think, the goal that we're after."

The zoning by-law amendments have been moved to a second reading.
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