The Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club opposes the development of private land that would affect its Mount McIntyre ski trail next to Fish Lake Road.

At a meeting hosted Wednesday by the Yukon Environment and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB), club member Jim Gilpin said his organization had concerns over the proposed Raven's Ridge country residential subdivision. The plan, said Gilpin, would cut off 150 metres of their 10-kilometre trail near the railway station, as well as trails used by the Klondike Snowmobile Association.

Gilpin also said information that phase two of the project, which has yet to be officially considered but would be located parallel to phase one, is also undesirable because it would destroy more club trails.

The ski club does not own either the phase two land, or the 150 metres of trail which would go through the corner of the Ravens' Ridge initial 18-lot development.

The land for phase one is privately owned by local developers Mark Radke and Erik Nyland.

Gilpin explained that he and fellow ski club members had serious concerns over the project.

'The proposed Raven's Ridge subdivision, as currently designed, would negatively impact one of our existing trails the 10-kilometre trail so the current design is unacceptable to us and we must strenuously oppose it.

'An additional 700 metres of the trail crosses land within the proposed Raven's Ridge phase two.

'However, I hasten to add that we have viable suggestions for modifying the proposed design that mitigate all of our concerns without radically affecting the development,' Gilpin said.

Phase two, although not formerly proposed, would occur on property privately owned by the Alberta-based ATCO Group; the parent company of the Yukon Electrical Co. Ltd.

Another concern, Gilpin added, was the removal of a snowmobile trail that currently crosses the developers' property, which the ski club felt could lead to conflicts between skiers and snowmobilers.

Gilpin recommended: shifting the development's southernmost cul de sac westwards so it does not affect the trail; a part of one of the private lots should be zoned park so skiers can continue using it; including a snowmobile trail through the middle of the subdivision to connect with the ski trails.

The ski club, Gilpin added, is currently authorized to use its trail network through a licence of occupation.

Responding to ski club members as well as other residents' concerns, Nyland said he and Radke had considered a number of designs before coming up with the current proposal.

Nyland said while he felt the loss of a portion of the 10-kilometre trail was unfortunate, he did not feel losing 150 metres of trail, located on his land, was too significant.

Radke said while he was willing to have a dialogue with the ski club, he was shocked and dismayed earlier this week to hear that the ski club was voicing its disapproval of the project through the media instead of talking to the developers.

The property, which was Whitehorse's original mining claim known as the Copper King and Copper Queen, was acquired by the developers in 1998, Nyland added.

'We purchased the property in 1998 ... with the intention to develop it,' he said.

He said while he understood the ski club's concerns, he did not feel it was the developers' responsibility to relocate the club's trail because the trail was in fact owned by Radke and Nyland.

Nyland also said he and Radke had made a number of moves to minimize environmental impact on the area, including transferring ownership to the city of wetlands and other sensitive habitat, totalling about 51 per cent of their land holdings on the Fish Lake Road.

'Environmentally sensitive areas will be protected,' he said.

Nyland said the main environmental problem that he and Radke were currently looking into was a situation where the proposed development's access road encroaches on a 30-metre protected area around rivers and creeks.

'We can't keep the road outside the 30-metre setback,' he said.