2012 Yukon River Quest, coming down to Whistle Bend. Golden Horn Mountain behind.
January 14, 2014. Draft commentary for the current YESAB evaluation of Phases 3-7 of Whistle Bend (open until Jan 16, 2014).
Peter Long, whitehorsewalks.com
"You can't stop progress," is a common mantra. However, accepting that growth within the City's Urban Containment Boundary will happen, let's try to ensure that what's left over from the Whistle Bend project stays 'natural'.
It almost seems that, once you draw a hard black line around a development project like Whistle Bend, anything outside seems not to be involved or to be dealt with "later". The fact that, in places, the Whistle Bend subdivision is on a peninsula and less than 400 m from the Yukon River, feels lost. There seems to be suggestions that designating trails outside the project boundaries is unfair to future home buyers. Waiting decades to designate a major exterior natural trail route seems destined to bequeath them with a torn-up trail-braided wasteland!
With thousands of projected residents living in Whistle Bend, recreational opportunities need to be more than those provided within the subdivision. People will also want a 'Wilderness City'-type of natural trail experience that living alongside a 3,190-km long river can offer.
Having walked the cliffs and gloried in the stunning views, I tried to think about those who would one day buy a home here. Today's society is much more aware of wellness, both community and individual. So for Whistle Bend, as we think about walking as part of being healthy, remember the walking destination will be the river.
It should be stressed that trail use acknowledge that this is traditional TKC and KDFN territory and that it was used historically by them. Here are some thoughts.... |
Walking around Whistle Bend
2 related pages are:
Odocoileus hemionus
Mule Deer
Yukon River at Whistle Bend
June 10, 2012
Bird nests
Yukon River at Whistle Bend
June 26, 2013
Bald Eagle
Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Yukon River at Whistle Bend
August 13, 2012
Broom rape
Orobanche fasiculata
Yukon River at Whistle Bend
June 27, 2012
Recreation?
Yukon River at Whistle Bend
August 13, 2012
A dog's life...
Yukon River at Whistle Bend
June 27, 2012
Common Ravens
Corvus corax
Yukon River at Whistle Bend
June 27, 2012
Prickly Rose
Rosa acicularis
Yukon River at Whistle Bend
June 27, 2012
Well-worn sandy trail
Yukon River at Whistle Bend
August 13, 2012
Bird lookout and erosion
Yukon River at Whistle Bend
June 25, 2013
High water
Yukon River at Whistle Bend
June 27, 2012
Trail
Yukon River at Whistle Bend
June 9, 2012
Trail
Yukon River at Whistle Bend
June 27, 2012
Crossing Macauley Creek
Yukon River at Whistle Bend
June 17, 2012 |
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Phase 3-7 scope
Will 8000 people living in the area love these dunes to death?
Grey, Lorne, Carcross Valley mountains (?Caribou, Montana), Golden Horn and McIntyre mountains on horizon.
On-site and off-site activities that pertain directly to Phases 3 – 7 of Whistle Bend.
Quoting from Table 8-3 PROJECT CONSTRUCTION: Effects Assessment Summary
5. Wildlife Diversity and Habitat
Appropriate signage will be installed on all trails in the Whistle Bend area illustrating what types of recreational activities are permitted. New trail entry point will have physical barriers to limit unauthorized use of the trail system. Natural green space and riparian buffers that currently exist on-site will be maintained to the greatest extent possible.
Not significant – Likely, low magnitude rating: The trail network on the Porter Creek Bench and their high use prior to development would suggest that wildlife are already accustomed to a level of human disturbance in the area.
11. Health and Safety
This doesn't address cliffs, soft banks, wildlife.
17. Stable and sustaining vegetation:
The City will consider installing signage at points of potential entry from the development into sensitive areas. Signs will identify the area as sensitive, and note that recreational use (both motorized and non-motorized) should be limited to designated trails.
Not significant – Unlikely. The trail and road networks will reduce the frequency of foot traffic on the natural environment.
21. Surface Water / Groundwater Quality and Flow: foot traffic and recreation activities.
Trails that are part of the Project design will reduce the number of unauthorized trails and impacts to the vegetation in the area.
Not significant - Unlikely The maintenance of riparian buffers and trail network will minimize the potential of erosion and sedimentation as a result of foot traffic and recreation.
20. Wildlife Diversity and Habitat: Increased people, pets and traffic will cause displacement and potentially death of wildlife.
Habitat in the area outside the Project footprint will be untouched by the development and will still provide habitat function.
Not significant – Likely, low magnitude The magnitude of effects is reduced since the development area is outside designated significant wildlife areas (SWAs). The effect is minimized by the provision of green space.
24. Recreational Use: Loss of the local trail system and / or reduced aesthetic values, including visual, tranquility and solitude.
The trail network proposed for Phases 3-7 connect offsite Whistle Bend Way to Mountainview Drive and to nearby motorized winter 2012 (snowmobile) City wide trail network. The recreational perimeter trail connects the Whistle Bend Community to destinations outside the neighbourhood (e.g. adjacent neighbourhoods, Golf Course, and Eagle Bay park).
Positive effect Although some existing trails will be permanently lost, new trails to be incorporated into the development will compensate for this loss. The effects of reducing the aesthetic values are reduced in scale due to the consultation process and cooperative creation of the development design.
28. Adjacent Land Users:Increased likelihood of conflicts from operational activities with land use adjacent to Project.
Representatives from the golf course were invited to review preliminary and revised concept plans of the Project. No specific concerns were raised.
Not significant – Likely, low magnitude The population increase resulting from the Whistle Bend Project is likely to have a positive impact on the golf course as it may increase its client base. Representatives from the golf course were involved in the Project concept plan development to minimize effects on this land user.
The assessment on the band of land on the Whistle Bend peninsula outside the project's defined boundary minimizes the probable effects of building a subdivision for 8000 people here. Realistically, active transportation routes alongside major roads, paved motorized and groomed-surfaced trails and green streets within the subdivision will not stop people from wanting to use the natural areas outside the developed subdivision, easily accessible in a 30-minute walk.
But many people walk much further than short 30-minute walks. Signage and barriers are insufficient to protect the perimeter natural space. Look at examples of trail users elsewhere in the city where people feel that "you can't tell me what to do". Whistle Bend subdivision needs to use peer pressure from groups of organized trail users to be able to preserve land around the subdivision. An important way of helping protect is offering attractive alternatives to trail users.
Let's look further at the small amount of natural land outside the border and see if it feels more important than was assessed in the report. Addressing preservation of surrounding natural spaces realistically, before the city accepts transfer of the subdivisions, seems a cheaper process and more fairly addressed as a development cost today, rather than 10 or 15 years from now when damage might well be irrepairable. |
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How far do people walk? Getting to 4th and Main
Note that the map images are each linked to larger images
Health studies say we are not active enough. One solution is walking. Look at the popularity of the Millennium Trail, the Rotary Centennial Bridge. Interesting trails will become destinations, encouraging people to expand their horizons. What will make residents of Whistle Bend want to walk?
Before people set out on a walk they sometimes want to know how far, how long, where to go. So I made the map above with the corner of 4th and Main as a destination. Generally I chose to follow paved trails if they are obviously faster (shorter). But walking alongside roads is boring, noisy, smelly, so where it was possible, I chose cleaner air, quieter, more interesting scenic routes.
Think of walking about 4 km per hour for a moderate pace. Before people start walking to work, they'll be first walking around the Whistle Bend subdivision. Let's look at recreational walking next. |
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The Yukon River Corridor Trail
Stories from the past have much to say about the importance of the river in the lives of the people who lived here. As one would expect being in the heart of two traditional territories, a trading trail once ran from Marsh Lake to Lake Laberge. Whistle Bend even celebrates the river's history by naming its streets after the paddlewheelers. One day, if we plan well, we will again be able to walk along the river within city limits, and eventually, lake to lake. Read more here.
To do this we need to plan — zoning and land use rules are critical. While many parts of this corridor trail exist, the area around Whistle Bend is still only a vision, an opportunity for the city. On the above map, green is existing trails or routes, orange is pieces that need to be looked at. The parts of the trails along the river generally follow the edge of the height of land, usually with a fairly sharp slope down to the river or low benches along the river. Sometimes the trail is on the east side and sometimes on the west.
When chosing a trail route, because it isn't always easy to walk with good river views, we should address this by using side trails to natural lookout spots. This will be especially the case for Whistle Bend. Also important will be understanding whether there is the concept of a legal public right-of-way alongside the river.
The importance of this trail through Whistle Bend should be addressed in the YESAB evaluation of Phases 3 – 7 for the Whistle Bend subdivision. We should not wait until Whistle Bend is almost full in 10 to 20 or more years before citizens of Whitehorse can create this part of the river trail.
So let's look at the Whistle Bend peninsula. I'll use this term to remind us that this is a piece of land surrounded on three sides by water. |
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Whistle Bend's neighbourhood
 The series of concentric circles, centred at the corner of Keno and Goddard ways, are spaced every .25 km (250 m). This is to give a sense of scale, of distance between places. The green line around the project is to be the paved Perimeter Trail. Coloured shading reflects the Zoning By-law (2012). This will obviously change as seen (map on right) by overlaying Map 6 (Whistle Bend) of the By-law over the current Whistle Bend concept map. Below are descriptions from the By-law.
- red is Mountainview Golf Club, Commercial Recreation (CR): outdoor recreation development with tourist facilities and complementary secondary uses that encourage year-round activity.
- dull orange is Future Planning (FP): protect land with no determined use in a generally undeveloped and natural state until such time as planning has occurred to determine appropriate zoning.
- bright orange is Kwanlin Dün land (FN-FP): lands owned or selected by the Kwanlin Dün First Nation which shall be planned and designated in accordance with the Kwanlin Dün self government and final agreements.
- greenish-turquoise is Environmental Protection (PE): protection and preservation of environmentally sensitive areas, wildlife habitat and other significant natural areas.
- blue is river, creek, wetlands, also Environmental Protection (PE).
- green, and dull green within the concept sketch, are Greenbelt (PG): public land typically left in a natural state and may be used primarily for buffers, walkways, trails and for unorganized or passive recreation.
- ICONS: slides = playgrounds, masks = Guild Hall, flagged buildings = schools, "$" = stores.
The land beside the river, shown as PE, is often high cliffs, steep banks, sand dunes. The river is about 400 m north of the Whistle Bend subdivision and about 300 m to the south. It's important to keep in mind that while this YESAB is just looking at Phases 3-7, really there's also Phase 1,2 that are part of the pressure on the greenspaces. A big focus for all will be getting to the river.
One further thing to be aware of is the pressure of people out walking dogs. Obviously, the off-leash map produced by By-law will need updating.
Next, let's look at each of the three sides of the peninsula: south, east and north. |
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South end of Whistle Bend
 The Whistle Bend bench on the south side has spectacular views (red view icons), and reflecting this, Eagle Bay Park was designated as part of Phases 1,2 of Whistle Bend. The park sits high over the sandy cliffs above the mouth of McIntyre Creek with peeks down into beaver ponds and eagle nests, and often paddlers heading downriver.
Photo at right: looking out over the confluence of McIntyre Creek with the Yukon River with Grey and Lorne mountains behind; this is about 1.5 km from Phases 3-7, .5 km from Phase 1,2.
The banks will quickly start to show signs of love as Phase 1 and 2's 2200 residents wander out and along the escarpment trail here. As Phases 3-7 start to fill, the pressure will only increase; thinking that this end of Whistle Bend isn't affected by Phases 3-7 would be short sighted.
It's important to look at ways of encouraging hiking away from the cliffs by provide interesting alternatives. How? Use the focus of a Yukon River Corridor Trail—designed as a sturdy, interesting and natural trail—and people will follow it, both south towards town and north around Whistle Bend. Orange lines on the above map are some routing ideas. They mostly follow existing trails.
 The "?" icon on McIntyre Creek shows where the Yukon River Corridor Trail could cross McIntyre Creek with the building of a small bridge. Whistle Bend residents would see walking here as a recreational pursuit; as well, Range Road residents would gain pleasant access to Whistle Bend and the Eagle Bay Park. This crossing, likely the site of an earlier road, would be an attractive spot, much like the bridge below the college. This whole area easily opens up interpretation opportunities (photo at right: beaver pond beside McIntyre Creek below the slope of the old dump; parts of Range Road and Mountainview Drive can be seen; Golden Horn and Mount McIntyre behind).
Continuing towards downtown, after crossing McIntyre Creek and ascending to the heights on the south side of the creek, one arrives at the site of the old dump overlooking a wide panorama of mountains and the confluence of McIntyre Creek and the Yukon River. There are interpretive signs here (oops, they were vandalized and removed... sigh!), partly commemorating the work of the Ta'an Kwäch'än Council in spearheading the cleaning of the dump, restoring natural vegetation on the steep slopes below and restoring salmon habitat on the creek.
There is a Range Road North neighbourhood planning currently underway which could address this site from the Range Road side. The next event, the Range Road North Design Workshop, has been scheduled for January 21-23 at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre. The current report on the page is hopeful and interesting to read.
 Hiking McIntyre Creek
The obvious area that will offer alternate hiking is McIntyre Creek. Part of the City's McIntyre Creek Park, it has many really nice trails. The "!" warning icons (red triangles on map on the right) show where people will want to cross Range Road and Mountainview Drive. As an example of distances, look at two routes to the college: the yellow line (map on the right) is about 4.54 km; pink line via the McIntyre wetlands lookout, by Takhini Trailer Court, is about 7 km. The walk to McIntyre wetlands will be popular with its incredible views into the wetlands below.
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East side of Whistle Bend, the golf course
 On a recent hike in a walking festival in Wales, one hike followed a path that went right through a golf course, thus showing it is possible to mix golf and trails. This might be a good role model to explore for our Whitehorse situation.
There needs to be larger discussions with the golf club on how the thousands of people living here are to interact with the space and how the Yukon River Corridor Trail would either pass through the course or along the edge. The golf course here will be an attractive tranquil place to walk. Winter use for trails will be tempting for snowbikes, snowshoes and walking. High fences and restricting walkers to just using the paved Perimeter Trail would be unsightly and not very neighbourly.
The orange routes above are suggestions, often following existing trails. The trail along the cliffs on the south edge of the golf course is heavily used, very fragile and really pretty. |
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North end of Whistle Bend
The north end green space above Phases 3-7 was considered as recreation in the earlier concept plans, but the City's 2012 Zoning By-law now considers it FP, Future Planning. It should have been made PG Greenbelt. Is it because there are still plans to develop it further? It's about 2.7 km wide by around 200–400 m high. Above this the land slopes steeply down to the river (cliffs on right of above photo). This is designated as PE, Environmental Protection. There are a number of existing trails here but I've chosen just one (marked in orange) as being a goal of the Yukon River Corridor Trail. On-the-ground testing would obviously be needed. Red lines are the City's official motorized trails.
A big unknown is where people who don't want to walk on motorized trails will be able to walk as they go north along the river. To encourage walking in the north area crossings at the creeks, (above map "?" icon on motorized trail at Macauley Creek) will need bridging. Without planning, the northern area could easily degenerate into multiple braided trails as the subdivision fills.
Also at this end of the Whistle Bend penisula, interaction with the golf course needs to be addressed so residents will know what rules they need to follow.
 Whistle Bend pedestrian bridge
Photo at right: Looking upriver at Whistle Bend north, in the area where the sewage pipes cross to the sewage lagoons on the north side of the river; ridge of Cap Mountain behind; June 15, 2012. This is where a proposed pedestrian bridge could be located — marked on the above map by the "?"; it is also where the .25 m concentric circles on the above map are centred.
 This proposed pedestrian bridge was shown on the Nov. 8, 2006 Porter Creek Bench Charrette concept map. A bridge here would be a huge hit with residents. It would give access to trails on the other side of the river. The concept of a Yukon River Corridor trail would get a major shot in the arm with access to the beautiful high cliffs on the eastern shore of the river.
 Note from an earlier consultation map: "The possibility of a bridge was explored to increase connectivity to the regional trail network. Will need to work with Ta'an Kwäch'än Council to ensure adequate controls are made to protect their land across the river."
Map at right: red line is City motorized trail; orange is Ta'an Kwäch'än Council land; purple is Kwanlin Dün land; blue is Zoned PU Public Utility. Long pink line out to start of Lake Laberge is 20 km and shorter pink line is 4 km. Perspective results in the two line lengths looking more like a 1:2 ratio. |
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Snowmobiles, ATVs, dirt bikes, ...
Phase 1, 2 talked of a paved Bike Path and I pictured the above scene from the non-motorized Millennium Trail. Phase 1,2 also said "Motorized vehicles would not be able to gain access to the greenbelt but would be provided with out and away trail connections".
Now, in Phase 2-7, the report talks about "these spaces [natural areas and storm water dry ponds] could provide residents with 'park-like' spaces for passive and spontaneous recreational activities. These spaces could provide winter staging areas for motorized recreation and access to perimeter and off-site multi-use trails" and suggests "Motorized vehicles are permitted on multi-use perimeter trails. Consideration for a dual-track along the perimeter path way is recommended to reduce conflict of motorized and non-motorized users" .
ATV and Snowmobile by-laws state:
- maximum speed is 50 km per hour unless posted otherwise
- When approaching or passing a pedestrian, dog, or cyclist, operators must reduce their speed to 15 km/hour
- when on designated trails, operators are required to follow the posted speed limit.
This is a new subdivision and designating any more than 'out and away trail connections' should not be done without community consultation. Likewise, reasonable speed limits need to be discussed with the community. The paved Perimeter Trail is essentially a wide sidewalk. It seems odd that snowmobiles, ATVs and dirt bikes are allowed to go faster on trails, often with poor sight lines, than we are allowed to drive in school zones.
What we should be looking at in the area is how to keep what's left from development as natural as possible. The south part of Whistle Bend could not withstand intensive ATVs, cross country motorcycles and snowmobiles from the area's 8000 residents. One would think that the golf club members would hope to escape this. In the north, if there is any hope for a natural green space, then it also should be non-motorized. And what about a "quiet" green space. Wouldn't some residents like that concept, at least somewhere on the peninsula?
With a slow trickle of new residents over the years, it will take years to organize an effective voice of a Community Association. In reality, the best way of protection would be if the various motorized clubs used peer pressure and encouraged their members to help protect what's left here. So, where should they go — north along the river and out of the city? Not in Whistle Bend north's FP area for sure. Not off the motorized trails. The small amounts of recreation land on the peninsula outside the project is too little to support their use, winter or summer.
The above-mentioned foot-bridge could be a solution for getting these vehicles out and away. I suspect the Riverdale motorized trail task force experience has made the sewage lagoon end of the city many people's idea of hinterland! Maybe this bridge should be a high priority KSA project. |
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Area OCP planning process
2009 brainstorming maps from the lead-up to the 2010 OCP:
L: Northland area R: Porter Creek
 
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