First reading of bylaw to rezone a parcel of land north of the Burntwood River as a public recreation zone will be voted upon at council’s Nov. 25 meeting
The land, which lies south of the stable road on the west side of the highway, is home to cross-country ski trails that users feared could be affected by future development.
When the piece of land and two other parcels – one to the north of the stable road and another on the east side of Highway 391 between the cemetery and the golf course – were redesignated from “future development” to “residential neighbourhood” under the Thompson planning district development plan in late October, cross-country skiers voiced concerns that this would pave the way for residential development to threaten the trails in the future.
“There’s no guarantee that the ski trail won’t be in jeopardy,” said skier Tanya Burnside at the Oct. 28 council meeting when the three parcels of land were designated “residential neighbourhood.”
“I’m uncomfortable with that making us one step closer to there being residential rezoning,” said Katy Thompson
“Is there any way that we could just zone this recreational and keep it for years and years and years?” skier Bonnie Sousa asked at that meeting.
City manager Anthony McInnis told her that a proposal to zone the area south of the stable road as recreational could be brought to the development review committee and then to council.
Several councillors said Oct. 28 that they were not in favour of taking away an existing recreational facility.
