The ongoing feud between residents of the Wolf Creek area and city hall continued in full stride Monday night.

City planning manager Lesley Cabott delivered a report to council outlining answers and resolutions to various questions and issues raised on the Whitehorse Copper residential lots proposal. However, area resident Kristin Innes-Taylor said she felt blind-sided.

The Alaska Highway resident, whose home would be impacted by the proposal for a new 105-lot rural residential subdivision, said she had no idea nor did anybody else, she believes that such a detailed report was going before council.

Hence, she told council, she was not prepared for a proper rebuttal, but suggested the lack of any knowledge of the report was symptomatic of a process that has not been open and public.

'I find it really upsetting,' Innes-Taylor said of the planning manager's report to council.

It has been shown time and time again, she argued, that the proposal has serious flaws. Yet the push for subdivision approval by city hall and the Yukon government the developer continues as though nothing were wrong, she argued.

During last week's cold snap, she said, a friend told her of how terrified she was to drive the section of highway where a major highway intersection is planned, because of the blinding darkness and ice fog that reduced visibility to near nothing.

There are wetlands in the area, despite the findings by the city and Yukon government that there aren't, she told council.

Innes-Taylor said she is not anti-development but feels she has the right to defend a lifestyle she's lived for 25 years.

The new subdivision would alter that lifestyle dramatically, she said. While she is open to talking about alternatives to the existing proposal, she insisted that opportunity has never been made available.

Coun. Dave Stockdale asked for and received agreement from his colleagues on council to further consideration of the bylaw to Feb. 14 from the scheduled date to bring it forward next Monday for second and final reading.

Stockdale said he will also be asking that instead of the normal practice of giving a bylaw second and third final readings at one sitting, that there be a break between second and third readings in this case.

When both readings come forward on the same night, it's as though there is an obligation to approve the bylaw, said Stockdale. He said he wanted a chance after second reading to consider any more input that might arise.

Michael Gerasimoff of the Wolf Creek Community Association told council that he too did not think a committee-of-the-whole council meeting, where members of the public are given five minutes to speak, was the appropriate forum to deliberate the new report.

'It's not possible in this kind of forum to come to a decision about balancing all 16 and 25 issues, and come up with solutions that might be workable,' Gerasimoff said.

The proposal for a country residential neighbourhood next to the Wolf Creek subdivision has been on the books since 1997, and has met with solid opposition from area residents from day one.

While the opposition remains staunch, others who want to buy rural residential properties have said the opposition is nothing more than the not-in-my-back-yard syndrome by those who already have their piece of the pie.

The Yukon government has so far spent $770,000 studying the subdivision proposal, Michael Hale of the Department of Community Service confirmed Tuesday. He said that cost, as well as other development costs, will be applied to the purchase price of the 105 lots now being proposed.

Cabott laid out for council a number of issues that have been raised, such as the concern about traffic.

Figures show the Alaska Highway, for instance, can handle a daily load of 12,000 vehicles, she told council. Cabott said with the 10-per-cent increase in traffic expected to arise from the new subdivision, the daily load is expected to hit 4,500 vehicles.

No problems with overloading are anticipated for the Golden Horn Elementary School, she added. Nor is there any concern that additional homes would create any threat to the existing quality of ground water or its supply, she said.

All intersections, she said, would be built to Canadian standards.

And the impact on wildlife would be minimal, as the area is already built up with the nearby Wolf Creek subdivision, a nearby industrial zone and the Mount Sima ski hill, Cabott said.

In addition to the issue and concerns raised, the planning manager also told council of the correspondence received supporting the subdivision, indicating high demand that would result in an economic stimulus with housing starts all in a recreational area next to the ski hill and a golf course.

Deputy Major Doug Graham countered Innes-Taylor's suggestion that city and government representatives have not been open to suggestions or alternatives in planning.

The subdivision, he said, has already shrunk from the original proposal of 165 homes to 105.

'What we are trying to do is arrive at something in between that will work because we realize that country residential lots are needed,' Graham said.

Coun. Dave Austin told the audience the issue of the Whitehorse Copper subdivision is as stressful for council as it is for area residents.

Larry Lebedoff, Innes-Taylor's husband, responded from the gallery with a quiet 'I don't think so.'