If city council does not amend the drafts of its green space bylaws, it will be forced to answer to the territorial government or a Yukon Supreme Court judge, say greenbelt advocates.

At their weekly meeting Monday night, council members gave first reading to their new green-space bylaws which city officials drafted after having received a petition spearheaded by the Porter Creek Community Association.

Association members, headed by president Carole Bookless, presented their petition for referendum, permitted under the city's referendum bylaw, in early February.

Following a required timeline which called on council to present the new bylaws no later than April and hold a referendum on them no later than July, council unveiled its first draft of the bylaw to committee earlier this month.

At Monday night's meeting, Bookless said she and the association are not happy with the city's first attempt at the controversial legislation. They are demanding council go back to the drawing board or face the consequences.

'What the petition called for, the city did the opposite of ....' Bookless told council.

She said the bylaw, as presented by the city, called on developers to come up with green-space plans instead of council in consultation with city residents as the petition called for.

'This bylaw outlines how you will develop green space; this is outrageous.'

Bookless said she believes council is not meeting its obligations under the law. If it didn't make the bylaw fit the intention of the petition, it would have to answer to Community Services Minister Glenn Hart or to a judge, she said.

'Council is blatantly flaunting the law,' Bookless said.

She said she'd like the bylaws to outline a process which would give residents meaningful input into the development process by:

• First talking to residents and see what they want;

• Identifying areas that are to be protected; and

• Pursuing the development initiative with clearly identified protected green space in the plans.

'All the green-space conflict which has plagued the city would be gone (with this process),' Bookless told council.

She said the green-space bylaws, if done properly, would give a clear indication to residents about which areas are protected and which are not.

'Basically, what I'm saying is that people think certain areas are protected when they are not. Once it's green space, it stays green space unless you go to referendum,' she said.

As the process is now, Bookless said, residents are told what their green space is going to be which is not acceptable, she added.

'We were told where the green space was going to be, it was a backward process.'

Fellow green-space petitioner Trena Irving also addressed council, expressing concern.

She said she felt without green belts being officially protected, infilling projects would eventually turn into something bigger.

'Developing these areas is dangerous because as soon as the infrastructure goes in, it's cheaper to build more houses near that infrastructure.'

She said she'd like to see greenbelts receive the same protection as the Chadburn Lake and Grey Mountain areas do.

Responding to the petitioners, Coun. Jan Stick said she had some concerns with the proposed process because recent history has shown many residents have varying expectations with regard to development planning.

Stick used the recent land debacle in Porter Creek as an example.

'How do we avoid a situation like last fall? People insisted before anything else that they would like to see the plans,' Stick told a packed council chambers.

'They wanted to see options first. They insisted they wanted to know what the plans are.'

Wading into the discussion, Coun. Doug Graham said the bylaw would likely be subject to a number of changes to reach a comfortable understanding between the city and the petitioners.

'We can make changes to this over the next couple of months,' he said. 'With a little give-and-take, I think we can come up with something that suits all of us.'

Council gave its new green-space bylaws first reading, meaning the proposals have officially entered the bylaw process.