By Barry Dorey / Staff Reporter

Regional council has no business even debating a subdivision proposal because it violates land-use bylaws at every turn, Spryfield residents argued Monday.

Rallying against planning staff's recommendation to rezone a portion of sensitive wilderness property near Williams Lake, residents implored four councillors on Chebucto Community Council to refuse a developer's request.

Or at the very least, set it aside until a new planning strategy for the area is completed.

"We do not need to rezone wilderness lands" to accommodate developers, former councillor Graham Read said of the Kimberly-Lloyd Developments Ltd.'s proposal for 870-dwellings.

The company, which owns the adjacent Governor's Brook Estates, needs the zone changed before it can seek a development agreement to proceed.

But the wording of the planning strategy dictates that council "shall" protect environmentally sensitive areas, ecologist Martin Willison said.

About 90 per cent of the property falls in that category. That makes it a non-starter, he argued.

Resident Philip Saunders agreed the clause cannot be interpreted as council chooses "just to accommodate a developer."

"Blasting 70 per cent of the exposed bedrock cannot in any rational world be construed as protection," he said.

Resident Tim Leary said rezoning "is an exceptionally bad idea" since a long-range plan for the municipality is still underway.

Walter Regan of the Sackville Rivers Association echoed those comments, arguing for a moratorium on projects that may affect waterways.

He said other projects have been delayed while environmental assessments are conducted.

Residents have been demanding an updated planning strategy with better protection rules for the area since 1978.

Now they fear they may lose their wilderness area to a project of mostly single-family homes, along with townhouses and three apartment buildings.

City planners say the property and the proposal meet the criteria for rezoning to Residential Development District.

But members of the Williams Lake Conservation Co. have challenged that, saying that bringing as many as 2,700 new residents to the area will threaten the natural water system, create traffic gridlock and dump more sewage into Herring Cove.

Resident Melanie Dobson said the municipality rejected pretty much the same development in 1998 and the current proposal "continues to fail the test."

Sharon Beazley of the local business association was among the minority to support the proposal, which offers the promise of new families and business for the depressed area.

But most opposed the idea of any project between Colpitt Lake and MacIntosh Run, and wedged between Herring Cove Road and Williams Lake.

Erin Hodge said allowing the project would not be Spryfield's salvation and would be "short-sighted and naive.

"It's a far better asset for Spryfield" than a development.

Residents also fear blasting out the granite bedrock to build homes would destroy the natural flow of water to Colpitt Lake.

That could negatively affect Williams Lake, a popular swimming and recreation spot, as well as MacIntosh Run if that ends up getting the construction runoff. The municipality declared the area in question environmentally sensitive in 1987.