City council has rejected an administrative recommendation to go ahead with residential planning on a parcel of land along Holly Street in Porter Creek.

Before voting against proceeding with a Holly Residential Area Master Plan last Monday, council heard one submission at its public input session.

In the end, council voted against proceeding with a Holly Residential Area Master Plan.

Mike Gau, the city’s director of development service, told council the plan was to use the 12.5 hectares to build housing units, as part of the city’s growth and housing strategies.

Porter Creek resident Tony Grabowski told council the green space along Holly Street is important to the well-being of area residents.

It’s important to the wildlife that move through there, he added.

When he walks in the area, summer and winter, he feels good when he comes home, he told council.

Grabowski said he sees cyclists using the trail network all the time.

He sees mothers with their babies in carriages and a whole lot of public use of the green space.

The retired conservation officer said green spaces are important to people’s health.

Grabowski said it’s his understanding the green space was once surveyed to provide 23 residential lots.

But when a developer sought approval from council in 2006 to develop the lots, council said no, and the area was subsequently identified as green space, he said.

“It would be a shame to lose that green space because green cover and open spaces are important to towns and cities because they provide health, well-being and ecological benefts,” he said.

Grabowsi told council green spaces provide natural cooling and they support water management through the control of runoff and soil erosion.

They reduce stress in people by increasing happiness and physical activity and overall health, he said.

Grabowski said green spaces foster connectivity among community residents and the natural environment that surrounds them.

This particular green space has the TransCanada Trail running through it, he said. He told council when green spaces are gone, they are gone forever, along with all the benefits that came with them.

Most cities look to more green space, he said, adding there are none looking to develop green space.

The City of Houston, Tex. is in the midst of ripping up concrete in favour of green spaces, he told council.

Grabowski said that one-kilometre hike, that phyiscal activity, is important to him.

If council wants to get a handle on how well used the green space is, it should set up trail cameras, he said, adding council would be astonished by the use the area gets.