The majority of city council voted Monday night to proceed with planning and design for the Porter Creek D subdivision and a major road artery across McIntyre Creek.

As four of the seven council members defeated the second of two proposals to delay the vote, the 45 or so supporters of McIntyre Creek who had packed the gallery all night began leaving, with frowns of frustration, heads shaking in disgust.

A dozen or so remained to witness Mayor Bev Buckway and councillors Dave Stockdale, Florence Roberts and Dave Austin approve the motion to proceed with a $420,000 contract to advance the development proposal.

Councillors Kirk Cameron, Betty Irwin and Ranj Pillai opposed the motion on what has been the most contentious issue city council has faced this year, if not for several years.

"There is going to be a city council election in October, and I do not think people are going to forget about this,” Karen Baltgailis, the executive director of the Yukon Conservation Society, promised this morning.

Baltgailis was one of 11 members of the public and representatives of special interest groups who made submissions to council last night before the vote.

All but one pleaded with council to delay the decision in favour of a second look.

Rick Karp, the president of the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce, was the only one to speak in support of the development, as he has done so often in the past.

The city, Karp said again, is in desperate need of housing to keep pace with the bustling growth, growth that is expected to get even hotter with rising demand from the mining sector.

"Some say, ‘not in my back yard,'” Karp said. "Well, if everybody says that, what do we do?

"All people need a place to live and all people deserve a nice place to live in Whitehorse.”

Choking off development would hurt the city as a whole, Karp insisted.

The chamber president also stated his annoyance regarding a comment at last week's council meeting that suggested the business community doesn't care about the environment.

The business community goes to great lengths to ensure protection of the environment and makes significant financial contributions in doing so, Karp said.

For almost an hour and a half following Karp's opening comments on the Porter Creek D proposal, council heard nothing but requests to defer.

It listened to more accusations that the entire exercise in public consultation was nothing more than a smoke screen for the city's hidden agenda – development, regardless.

Speaker after speaker pointed to what they maintain were significant flaws in the review process, to a wildlife study that lasted a mere five months, not even two full seasons of the year.

The transportation study used to support the Pine Street extension was done in the afternoon, not during peak traffic flow in the morning and after work, it was pointed out.

The city, council was urged, needs to take a second look, to ensure the public consultation is thorough, to ensure the background studies are sound.

The newly-elected Cameron presented the first motion to delay. He indicated he believed the city needed to repair the consultation process that resulted in several community groups pulling out of the Porter Creek D working group.

There is still time, Cameron suggested, to mend the fences and come to some consensus on how to the proceed.

With Cameron's motion defeated, Pillai introduced his, recommending the appointment of an independent third party to rework the terms of reference before moving forward with the planning and design.

Pillai indicated Cameron has worked 24-7 since being elected in the Dec. 1 byelection to ensure all the parties are willing to come back to the table and work in good faith.

"I don't want to shut the door on anybody's fingers,” he said in asking council to consider his motion.

The majority of council, however, indicated their belief the consultation process has been thorough, that the research is sound.

Besides, indicated Roberts, the city is not giving final approval to Porter Creek D and the Pine Street extension; it is simply moving into the next phase of planning which involves a brand new round of public consultation.

Roberts said the city is not bound to proceed with the project by voting to move into the next phase of planning.

But, like Baltgailis told council last week, she said again this morning that once the city spends nearly half a million dollars to continue planning the design work, the chances it will reject the proposal in the end are very remote.

She said whether the conservation society will be fully involved in the next phase remains to be seen.

There will have to be some level of comfort that what it has to say will be listened to, she said.

"If we are just knocking our head against the wall as we have been for the last many months, what is the point?” asked Baltgailis.

"How many time do we have to say the same thing?