Whitehorse city council was 'blackmailed' and 'bullied' into 'bending over' for the Yukon Territorial Government (YTG), ignoring citizens concerns and approving the controversial Whitehorse Copper subdivision, residents opposed to the development said Monday.

In a series of votes, one to revisit the issue and the other on the future of the subdivision, city council voted against an amendment which would have removed an access road, referred to as the Meadow Lakes access road, and reduced the number of lots in the subdivision.

By voting against the amendment, council members, many of whom said they felt pressured by the YTG to make the decision, effectively gave the new subdivision approval.

As it stands now, the new subdivision will include the road, 25 serviced industrial lots, 111 country residential lots and three parks.

'I feel like we've been placed between a rock and a hard place,' said Mayor Ernie Bourassa prior to the vote last night.

Bourassa also assured residents that steps had been taken to assure the road would not go any further into the subdivision than necessary and future development in the area would be prevented.

Following the vote, several residents, including area representative MLA Steve Cardiff, expressed their disappointment with council's decision saying council members were essentially victims of blackmail at the hands of the YTG.

Wolf Creek-area resident Bob Van Dijken said council should have stood up to the Yukon government and felt citizen's concerns on the issues were essentially ignored.

'They (YTG) essentially short-circuited the City of Whitehorse council by blackmail, pure and simple.

'Why do we have a council if in the end it's my way or the highway from YTG it doesn't make any difference what council says,' said Van Dijken.

Fellow resident Helen Slama said she was frustrated with the outcome because a compromise between the Wolf Creek Community Association and council was essentially ignored in the vote.

'YTG got everything they wanted ... it's really disempowering.

'YTG wasn't listening to the people, they've essentially bulldozed their way through the process and council just bent over for them,' Slama said.

Cardiff said he was disappointed about council's decision and felt a compromise reached between his constituents and council had been ignored in the vote.

'Ultimately, I think the YTG and the minister bullied, blackmailed, call it what you want, they're the ones who ultimately have the ultimate (say) on whether it goes ahead and council didn't call their bluff, unfortunately.

'Basically what happened is I think the YTG listened to constituents but didn't hear a goddamned thing,' Cardiff said.

Early this year, after over two years of public debate on the issue, council approved a rezoning amendment which would have seen the number of lots drop below 100 and a controversial access road into the subdivision eliminated.

In an interview Tuesday, YTG community development branch director Eric Magnuson said he was aware of resident's concerns but the YTG had made a number of concessions during the debate but could not allow the subdivision to go ahead without the controversial access road.

'We gave up a bunch of lots and a bunch of things early on in the process.

'The road is the main access route to the subdivision and is absolutely necessary in terms of safety and access for things such as (municipal) buses and school buses.'

Magnuson said he was pleased the development was finally going forward.

'We know the subdivision has been well planned,' he said.

Echoing the mayor prior to the vote, several city councillors said they felt pressured to agree to the YTG's vision of the subdivision.

Coun. Jan Stick said the vote made her feel 'uncomfortable'.

'I know there's a tonne of history behind this development ... (but) I don't feel that we've been given any options(by the YTG). Basically it was this is what's being offered or nothing,'' she said.

Coun. Mel Stehelin said he would approve the new lots, begrudgingly.

'Because of the shortage of lots and the timeliness of getting some new construction lots available, I'm going to have to go along with this, but I sure don't think we should be doing this all the time.'

Bourassa said council and YTG have recently been discussing amending the land development process.