In what is sure to prove interesting, the city could be heading for a greenbelt referendum this summer.

Carole Bookless, president of the Porter Creek Community Association, announced this morning that a greenbelt petition which has been circulating around the city for the past few months now has 2,500 signatures.

Members of the association are scheduled to present the petition to council at city hall on Friday.

Bookless was circulating the petition with the aim of gaining the necessary 2,000 signatures required under the city's Petition, Plebiscite, and Referendum Bylaw to spark a referendum.

If the signatures are proved to be valid, according to Robert Fendrick, the city's director of Administrative Services, council would be legally required to draft a bylaw in line with questions outlined in Bookless'petition.

The questions are:

'Shall the City of Whitehorse pass a bylaw requiring that, for every new or existing residential subdivision, a Greenspace Plan, passed by area plebiscite, be amended into the Official Community Plan (OCP) as part of any preliminary development in that area?

'Shall the City of Whitehorse pass a bylaw stating that it will maintain the designation of Greenspace, Greenbelt, Park, Park Reserve or Environmental Protection of any land once so designated in any OCP, unless changed by plebiscite or referendum?'

Bookless maintains the implementation of a green space bylaw would ensure there is green space in every subdivision; that everyone would know what is going on with greenbelt planning; and that greenbelt designation could not be changed without citizen support.

Fendrick said in an interview this morning that after the petition is received, members of city administration will scrutinize the signatures, which would take about a week, to verify they are from municipal electors.

'We'll compare them to the voter's list,' he said.

If 2,000 or more signatures were found to be legitimate, he said, council would likely present a greenbelt bylaw in April with a referendum likely occurring in July.

The referendum, he added, would function in much the same way as an election.

Mayor Ernie Bourassa said today that while he doesn't have an issue with Bookless' first question, he does have a problem with the second.

'The first question is stuff we're already doing,' Bourassa said.

The second question, he said, would effectively give individual neighbourhoods veto power over city planning procedures, which he cannot support, he said.

'I will fight that to the end,' he vowed.

Council has a responsibility to make sure affordable lots are available in Whitehorse, Bourassa added.

Coun. Doug Graham said this morning he believes the proposed bylaw would slow down development in Whitehorse and leave the city with a lot shortage.

'It's not workable, it's just not,' he said.

'Three quarters of what they're proposing is stuff we're already doing.'

The last city referendum, according to Fendrick, was held in conjunction with the 1983 municipal election and centred on the future of the Jim Light Arena.

The arena used to be on Fourth Avenue where the Sport Yukon building now stands.

The referendum, Fendrick recalled, asked citizens whether they favoured replacing the arena for $3 million or refurbishing it for $1.5 million.

Following the referendum, the Takhini Arena was built. It opened about 20 years ago.

A similar vote was held in March 1979 centering around former mayor Don Branigan's campaign promise to build a multimillion-dollar recreation centre.

The proposal, as reported in the March 30, 1979 Star, was defeated by taxpayers by a vote of 1,085 to 705.