Proponents of the former tank farm site between Hillcrest and Granger have pulled their application from the Yukon Environmental Socio-economic Assessment Board and are planning to proceed with remediation work.

That could begin within the next week.

The decision comes after council voted 4-3 Monday night to wait for the Yukon government decision on the recommendations that would come from the Yukon Environmental Socio-economic Assessment (YESA) process before moving ahead with an Official Community Plan (OCP) change to allow work on the site.

That decision, proponent Mike Mickey said in an interview early this afternoon, would have put the whole project a full year behind schedule.

Once the site is remediated, the development is anticipated to have anywhere between 500 and 800 homes.

"We have stopped the YESA process,” Mickey told the Star.

The developers will instead do the remediation work without going through the YESA and OCP process.

He noted that will mean the Ta'an Kwachan Council and Kwanlin Dun First Nation will be left on their own to do the work they had planned that was part of the periphery of the tank farm and included in their site.

They'll now be left to deal with their own property.

It will also mean the possibility of other changes as well such as treatment happening off-site.

As Mickey noted, the developers don't need to go through the YESA and OCP processes to clean up the soil on the site, and in fact did so to surface soil in the late 1990s with no misgivings from neighbours.

"There was not one complaint,” he said.

Essentially, he said, it would be similar to a person cleaning up his or her yard. A permit is not required.

Developers will make sure they know what can legally be done on the site before starting the work.

Mickey, however, expects that will be done quickly, and work could start on the site next week.

Council's decision Monday night came after numerous nearby residents spoke out on the plan for the site.

They argued it would bring traffic, noise and dust, and questioned whether it was the best way to remediate the site or simply the cheapest.

Councillors Dave Austin, Kirk Cameron, Betty Irwin and Dave Stockdale – all of whom are seeking reelection in the Oct. 18 municipal election – voted in favour of the deferral.

Residents argued the YESA process should be done first before any OCP change is made.

They also took issue with the "quarrying” side of the remediation operation that's expected to take anywhere from two to five years.

Mickey pointed out this afternoon the only way to know how much contaminated soil is to be dealt with is to physically dig down to it.

"Nobody knows how much there is,” he said, adding, "We have not proposed the removal of clean soil.”

Any treated soil will be processed into crushed gravel and used for the site itself. If there is excess gravel only, it would be used for other projects.

Moving forward with the cleanup without an OCP change or going through YESA could mean moving dirt from the site to a treatment facility which, Mickey pointed out, would bring more traffic to the area.

Mickey recalled years of working to have the site remediated and readied for development.

That included struggles with the National Energy Board, which was once in charge of the site.

He noted developers have welcomed the Yukon government taking on the oversight of the land and have worked with both the territory and city on their project.

Now, he said, they will do whatever is legally required to clean up the site without going through the territorial and city channels.