Purchase property, city officials advise council

Instead of signing off on a rezoning bid, the city could find itself shelling out cash to buy a private property off Fish Lake Road.

Instead of signing off on a rezoning bid, the city could find itself shelling out cash to buy a private property off Fish Lake Road.

At Monday evening’s city council meeting, members were presented with a staff recommendation that they reject Erik Nyland’s rezoning application for his 2.3-hectare piece of land and “enter into discussions for purchase of the property, so that it may be retained as a wilderness area.”

The proposal came forward in the report on the public hearing held last week for the rezoning application, which would see the site go from being Future Planning to Country Residential 1.

Nyland, a proponent with Raven’s Ridge Development, wants to build his own home and a secondary building on the site. As he told council, he’s been planning to do so for years.

During the public hearing, numerous delegates argued against the plan, noting the area is highly valued for its wilderness.

It serves as part of a wildlife corridor, and many Whitehorse residents enjoy bird watching and other recreational pursuits there.

Residents also took issue with plans for a powerline that would cross McIntyre Creek and run up a steep ridge to his land.

They also objected to the impact that would have on the local bird population, as well as an access road that would run to the property through an area designated as parkland in the city’s Official Community Plan (OCP).

Nyland indicated he would be willing to keep his property off-grid, instead relying on things like solar panels and a generator to power his home.

A piece of the road is already there in the form of a rough trail as well.

Last night, two delegates continued to argue against the rezoning.

“I think McIntyre Creek is such a phenomenon,” said Rosh Govindasamy, a resident of the Raven’s Ridge neighbourhood, adding the area is “bursting with wildlife.”

Meanwhile, Michael Bendall, who’s building his own home in Raven’s Ridge, continued to urge the city to “uphold the principles” of the OCP and not allow the development to happen.

“This will affect us all,” he said, noting he didn’t want to see the area destroyed by development.

Council members were quick to question whether the two property owners had any of the same concerns when the first section of Raven’s Ridge, where their properties are, was developed.

Bendall noted he had contacted the city at that time with concerns, while Govindasamy noted she didn’t know of the city’s OCP when she purchased her lot.

She also noted that while the first phase of Raven’s Ridge had an impact, she always felt that at least there was still the other side of McIntyre Creek for the wildlife and birds where Nyland’s property is.

In making the recommendation to look at purchasing the property, city planner Mike Gau agreed the proposal doesn’t fit with the city’s OCP, which promotes more compact development that makes use of existing infrastructure.

“Examined strictly from the need to better use land that could hold residential development, adding one dwelling unit to an area that is currently vacant could be viewed as a positive towards achieving this objective,” states his eight-page report to council.

“However, this development fails on all other accounts. It adds a large amount of highly inefficient infrastructure in terms of a very long access road used solely to access one property; it is not conducive towards the usage of transit or active transportation; and it causes development within the middle of what otherwise would be a large relatively intact wilderness area.

“The negative impacts here (road expansion, fragmentation of habitat, implications for emergency response) outweigh the positives (addition of one housing unit).”

If council turns down the rezoning bid, Gau continued, the city could approach Nyland about buying the site. It would use the land bank reserve, which currently has nearly $2.8 million in it.

Council will vote on the rezoning at its meeting next week.