City plans green space protection

The city will delay the release of its revised Official Community Plan (OCP ) until the fall, but in doing so will also include a plan for green space in the city.

The city will delay the release of its revised Official Community Plan (OCP ) until the fall, but in doing so will also include a plan for green space in the city.

The plans were outlined at a council and senior management meeting Wednesday afternoon.

During the session, city planner Mike Ellis explained that due to the massive amount of input the city received over the OCP consultation period, the document won’t be ready until the fall.

One of the biggest issues heard during the consultation was the need to look at protecting the city’s land.

While planners were already considering a green space plan that would be separate from the OCP, with that document on hold until the fall, it gives the staff the summer to come up with the plan and include it in the OCP, city staff explained to Mayor Bev Buckway and Councillors Dave Stockdale and Jeanine Myhre, the only members of council present.

“People want a higher level of protection for land,” Ellis said after sustainability projects manager Shannon Clohosey brought forward the proposal.

Along with being among the major issues to come out of the OCP review, the city has a commitment to sustainability through its sustainability plan, but doesn’t have an overall vision of priorities for protection.

“It would help us create a vision for green space,” she told council and staff.

The plan would identify land and the level of protection it should have, which could in turn help the city plan for development knowing which areas are a higher priority for development, she said.

While the focus is on green space, development is the flip side of that, Ellis added.

“They have to go hand-in-hand,” he said.

While this would mark Whitehorse’s first green space plan, other municipalities like Ottawa and Banff, Alta. already have similar documents which rate portions of land.

“We wouldn’t be reinventing the wheel,” Clohosey said. The current situation sees green space identified on more of a piecemeal basis rather than a broader scope the proposed plan would provide, she added.

How land would be rated for protection - whether it be on a scale basis or based on the type of use - would be decided over the summer as the city forms the plan, as would other details of the plan.

The process for the plan will see staff spend much of the summer making an inventory of information they already have from previous studies and maps as well as what residents have told the city of their thoughts for green space.

They would also consult the territory’s Department of Environment and other sources of information and expertise, it was noted in an information page provided to those at Wednesday’s meeting.

After getting all the information together, staff would identify all the land used as a wildlife corridor, is ecologically sensitive, used for outdoor recreation, or needs ground or surface water protection.

Then prior to putting the network plan into the OCP, the city plans to get “key partners” together to assist in drafting it.

While Buckway supports the plan as part of the OCP, she also stressed throughout the meeting it should be clear it is not permanent, and that things may change over the years.

She doesn’t want to see a situation where development can’t happen and ends up locating just outside city limits, she said.

As planners pointed out though, the plan could help the city prioritize spaces, giving a better idea of where development should go.

Stockdale also noted the green space plan must also fit with other city documents that outline things like where residential development will go.

“I think it has to fit in with all the other things,” he said.

After the meeting, Buckway also said she hopes the plan will provide better clarity for residents on what land may be used for in the future.

There can often be confusion on what could happen to land currently being used as green space, she said, pointing out that land zoned future development is often used for recreation, with residents not realizing it could be developed in the future.

“Some of it will be public education too,” she said, adding she’d like to get to a point where prospective home buyers informed of the zoning of land surrounding their property in the city.

She’d also like to see better clarity on the terminology used. One of the issues that often comes up for new residents to Whitehorse is how terms used in their previous community differ from how they are used in Whitehorse.

As city manager Dennis Shewfelt noted, one problem the city ran into in the 1990s was the term “open space” here referred to land that was simply that, while a number of residents thought it meant green space.

Buckway hopes the green space plan will help sort those terms out for residents.

“It’s a good move,” she said.

Also praising the move is Karen Baltgailis, the Yukon Conservation Society’s executive director , who said this morning it’s a sign the city is taking seriously the concerns of its residents.

“It’s wonderful,” she said of the green space plan.

The society has been calling on the city to create a network of protected areas.

While the city’s plan has yet to be done, Baltgailis said there’s a clear need to bring together a working group of first nations; Yukon government officials; and non-governmental groups like the society, Friends of McIntyre Creek, Friends of McLean Lake and community associations to help develop plans.

“There’s a lot of people with technical information,” Baltgailis said.

Developers, as well, will need to be consulted.

While the city is proposing to have the plan included in the OCP, she said the fall deadline may prove too tight for that.

At the very least, it needs to contain a commitment to continue working on the green space plan, she said.

For its part, the conservation society is planning on getting in touch with city officials to see how it can be involved.