A 6-1 vote by city council Monday night has paved the way for city residents to have their say on the proposed rezoning of 609 Drury St. back to residential.

"This issue is more complicated on one level,” Tamara Goeppel said in an interview following last night's meeting.

Former residents of the area will have an opportunity to talk about what happened in the 1970s when they were informed their homes would be expropriated, she noted.

It seems, Goeppel said, they need to talk about their experiences, which were the subject of a Star feature published Feb. 4.

In that story, a number of people recalled their shock in 1974 at learning through media reports they would be forced out of their homes.

Goeppel has been representing her mother, Edith Wienecke, who never moved from her Drury Street property, in seeking the rezoning from Environmental Protection to Downtown Residential 2 in order to retain the equity on the home Wienecke has lived at since the 1950s.

The bylaw's first reading came two weeks after council deferred the matter, looking for more information on the program that saw approximately 100 home owners leave the area near the escarpment.

In 1974, it was announced through city council that homes along the escarpment would be expropriated, with $2 million in federal funds set aside to compensate home owners.

The expropriation was proposed because of what was seen as the instability of the clay cliffs.

While the formal expropriation didn't go ahead, several property owners in the area took the payout believing they would eventually be forced to leave.

A few residents like the Wieneckes chose to stay even though their properties were eventually rezoned to a state that makes it difficult to sell.

In those cases, when the home owners have been ready to leave, the city has offered fair market value for the property as though it were zoned for residential use.

In applying for the rezoning, Goeppel had told council her parents lost the equity on their land due to the current zoning and recent studies – including one she had done by EBA Engineering – show the property is not in danger, as once thought. As such, it should be returned to its residential zone, she's argued.

In a presentation at last night's meeting prior to the vote, Goeppel argued the rezoning should be based on its own merits for that property rather than focusing on the past.

She took issue with comments she viewed as "personal” she heard from some councillors that they have to honour the mistakes of the past, and it's "easy” to get an engineering study showing that the property is safe.

She noted, though, that people were pressured to leave, there was no formal expropriation, and the safety of the area has been proved through science.

All she wants, she stressed, is to follow the proper process, and there are many out there who want to voice their experiences. The public hearing would allow for that.

Under questioning from Coun. Dave Stockdale, Goeppel noted she doesn't believe the suggested landscaping to mitigate issues with the clay cliffs is needed, given that the house has been there for so long with no problems, but would agree to them if it was rezoned.

City procedures don't allow council members to comment before they vote on first reading of a bylaw.

At a council and senior management meeting held earlier Monday, however, Coun. Florence Roberts, attending both meetings by conference call from Victoria, made it clear she would vote against first reading of the rezoning.

"We have to be consistent here,” she said, arguing council's integrity is at stake.

It was only three years ago that the city honoured the old agreement of buying out a different home along the escarpment.

Roberts also said she "didn't want to build up Tamara's hope” by passing first reading just to get to the public hearing, then have it voted down at second or third reading.

After last night's council meeting though, Goeppel said she realizes first reading being passed doesn't guarantee the bylaw will make it through all three readings to be adopted.

Roberts also questioned whether there were any plans for the White Pass and Yukon Route railway to extend its service from Carcross to Whitehorse.

When the train was running into Whitehorse (up until 1982), Roberts pointed out, it caused sloughing of the clay cliffs.

City manager Dennis Shewfelt said the city hasn't been made aware of any immediate plans.

While Roberts has been steadfast in not going ahead with the rezoning, Coun. Ranj Pillai told Monday's earlier meeting that the most recent engineering studies for the escarpment tell a very different story than what was happening in the 1970s.

He argued that along with at least allowing the rezoning to get started with first reading, the city should be looking at the entire area and its potential for development.

The city's new $10-million Public Safety Building was constructed at the top of the escarpment, he noted.

"Let's take a real look at the area,” Pillai urged.

The city's Official Community Plan also identifies some sites in a lower-risk area near the escarpment around Fifth Avenue for potential development, with the city slated to host a charette later this year to look at the downtown.

While council discussed the possibility of rezoning the site, planning manager Mike Gau outlined the history of the site from the early 1960s, when White Pass owned the larger piece of property the Wieneckes' and other homes were in, up to today.

The public hearing on the rezoning will be held at the March 14 council meeting.