The future of development in the Porter Creek area began Tuesday night.

At a public meeting at the Westmark Whitehorse Hotel, officials from the city, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), engineers, planners and environmental consultants discussed plans for the development of the lower Porter Creek bench and the public charrette which will decide what it looks like.

Kicking off the meeting, Brian Crist, the city's director of operations, began explaining the charrette process, the public's role in the new development initiative and the work that government and citizens would be engaging in to come up with a development plan.

'This is an exciting process ... (and) who will be involved? The answer is everyone,' Crist told an audience of about 80 to 100 people.

'This is the start of a process.'

Adding to Crist's opening, senior city planner Mike Gau said if members of the public had not yet been consulted on the Porter Creek bench, there was a good reason.

'If you're wondering why you haven't been consulted yet, it's because this is day one,' he said. 'The public will come up with the design (during the charrette).'

A charrette, according to the CHMC, is a multi-day workshop where stakeholders, including professional engineers, planners and members of the public, work together to come up with a design concept which will be put to the public for input.

Gau said Tuesday's public meeting was the beginning of the process which is projected to end in 2009.

The timeline for Porter Creek bench development, according to the city, includes:

• background research, public engagement and a development charrette in 2006;

• a green space map plebiscite, development concept refinement and the council approval process in 2007;

• engineering, detailed design and construction in 2008; and

• land sales in 2009.

Gau said the charrette team includes the CMHC, the city, the Yukon government, Gartner Lee, UMA Engineering, Quest Engineering, Chris Thames Heritage Consulting, public stakeholders, artists, the Ta'an Kwach'an Council and the Kwanlin Dun First Nation.

Addressing members of the audience, the CMHC's senior researcher, Sandra Marshall, said Whitehorse is not the only city experiencing development woes in Canada and is not the first city to try to solve development problems using a charrette.

Marshall listed a number of communities, including Iqaluit, Saint John, N.B., and Toronto.

The success of the city's November charrette, she added, would depend on the public.

'It's a waste of time if we don't have the support of the community.'

The goal of the 'non-political' initiative, she added, was to come up with a subdivision plan which lessened development impact on green areas.

'There's a local emphasis at looking at the natural environment (and at) trying to reduce our impact on the natural environment.'

Addressing members of the audience, Mayor Ernie Bourassa said he was excited about the charrette process. He believes it has become possible through the recent signing of a land development protocol by the Yukon government and the city earlier this year.

Under the old development process, the government was responsible for subdivision design and construction while the city was responsible for zoning.

Both levels of government had their own public consultation requirements.

'Our responsibility is (now) design and consultation. The (government's) responsibility is to build it,' Bourassa said. 'The new development protocol is going to give the citizens of Whitehorse much more say in the look, feel and design of new subdivisions.'

The design of the Porter Creek bench, he added, would have a significant impact on current and future Whitehorse residents.

'I'm glad I'm not going to be mayor in 20 years because there's going to be some serious land issues,' said the mayor, who is running for a third term in the Oct. 19 election.

'There won't be a lot of places to build,' Bourassa said.

The lower bench represented the last large piece of developable land that isn't protected or owned by a first nation, he added.