Whitehorse city council has approved a controversial concrete plant in the McLean Lake neighbourhood, despite years of opposition from area residents that included petitions and a Yukon Supreme Court fight.
Council's unanimous approval Tuesday came after a last-minute plea from Skeeter Miller-Wright, a resident who appeared on behalf of the McLean Lake Residents Association.
"If council votes in support of the proposed bylaw, it is acting contrary to the interests of hundreds of residents," Miller-Wright told council at the meeting.
"I believe it's council's responsibility to reflect the views of city residents."
McLean Lake residents have long argued that there is no economic or practical reason to put a concrete plant in their area. They worry it may affect the environment and groundwater quality.
In August, Yukon Supreme Court Justice Ron Veale ruled that the city was wrong when it originally approved owner Ron Newsome's gravel quarry and concrete plant proposal. It ordered the city to perform hydrological studies on the site.
Since then, the proposal has been amended to prohibit gravel extraction in the area, restricting the site to a concrete plant only.
"So when you look at how many people spoke against this particular application, there were not a lot of people," Mayor Bev Buckway said, adding that council has done all the reviewing and consulting it can before making a decision.
"The process that we deal with in looking into everything, it fits, and council felt that it did fit," she said.
"We also have to remember that we have about 7,000 and some households in the city of Whitehorse, which is 24,000 residents. There were perhaps 100 or 200 signatures on a petition, but in the sense of all the people, that is a small amount."
It's been a long road for Newsome, who said he started the process of applying for the plant in 1990. With council's approval Tuesday, he said his plant should be operating in two years.
"Well, I'm glad that they maintained their perspective that they had originally," he said.
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