A more than 60-year-old document is holding up development at the Takhini Hot Springs, and the company's owners are now asking the Yukon Supreme Court for some clarification.

Last year, the Yukon government accepted a subdivision application from Takhini Hot Springs Ltd., a key step required to move forward with any development plans.

Prior to being approved for subdivision, a survey of the land must be completed.

The federal Surveyor General of Canada office researches all the previous surveys and titles on the land before giving the nod.

That's when a 1949 Crown Grant was discovered.

It reads in part, "all navigable and other waters that now or maybe hereafter found on, under or adjoining or flowing through upon or alongside of said parcel,” is Crown land

"This clause caused a real problem because Takhini Hot Springs moves the water beds around and we move the stream bed around in accordance with the water licence,” Garry Umbrich, Takhini Hot Springs Ltd.'s majority shareholder, said in an interview today.

Another "small trickle” of water shown on the original survey has since dried up, court documents say.

"The surveyor is scratching his head, going, ‘I don't know what to survey now,' ” Umbrich said.

Until the confusion is cleared up, the Surveyor General's office has said it can't approve any plans, court documents say.

Without approval, no development can move forward.

Umbrich said he has tried to work with both the territorial and federal governments to come up with a solution but is now being forced to go to the Supreme Court so a judge can make a final ruling.

"For the last four or five months, we have been trying to work with the government, both federal and territorial.

"We just simply need an answer that says tell us what to finish surveying and make sure it's reasonable,” he said.

Umbrich said his lawyers believe the 1949 document may not hold up in court.

"Since that time, there's a Lands Act and a Waters Act and this legislation was put into place to deal with these kinds of issues,” he said.

Development of the Takhini Hot Springs area has been a hot topic for years.

The landowners initially applied to rezone the 123-hectare property as opposed to subdivide.

During a 2010 legislative sitting, Lake Laberge MLA Brad Cathers, then sitting as an independent MLA, tabled a petition signed by residents of 90 households.

They opposed the rezoning and want the government to quash Umbrich's application.

Cathers is now a cabinet minister.

"For three years, we waited for the government to give us an answer on the rezoning,” Umbrich said.

"We never got an answer, so after three years, we decided to forget about the rezoning application and put in a subdivision application.”

At the time, Umbrich said, he wanted to build 20 condos, an 80-room lodge, and a bed and breakfast on his property.

Today, Umbrich called any condos "future planning” and said he is currently focusing on building new, smaller, more natural-looking pools.

The redeveloped pools would have "no pumps, no filters, no chlorination; these would be flow-through pools. Much more like Liard Hot Springs (in northern B.C.).

Umbrich believes Cathers has the ability to clear up the confusion by applying to the cabinet to have the document in question removed from the property's record.

"They could remove the ‘Crown Grant' from the title because the current legislation covers all this; it's redundant,” Umbrich said.

"We were hoping that would happen and the lands branch came back and said, ‘no, the minister is not interested in doing that.'”

Calls seeking comment from Cathers were not returned in time for this afternoon's deadline.

If the plans move forward, Umbrich is hoping to have the new, flow-through, chlorine-free pools running by May 2016.