For more than half a century, Tamara Goeppel's parents have been at home near the clay cliffs at 609 Drury St.

It wasn't until 2007 when they learned they had lost the equity on their home thanks to a decision by the city years ago to rezone the site to Environmental Protection from its residential zoning.

Now Goeppel and her parents are asking the city to zone their property back to Residential Downtown 2.

"This is a project that's very close to my heart,” Goeppel said in a presentation to council at its meeting Monday night.

Seated next to her was her mother, Edith Wienecke, or "the boss”, as Goeppel stated, noting she would make the majority of the presentation with Wienecke there to interject if she missed something.

As Goeppel recalled, the work she and her parents have put into having the family home zoned again as residential began shortly after she and Wienecke attended a public input session on the city's Official Community Plan in 2007, where they learned the property was now zoned Environmental Protection.

It was done at a time when the city did not send out letters nor publish notices of potential

rezonings. Goeppel's parents were never made aware of the situation the same way they would be today, she said.

Approaching the planning department in 2008, she learned of the safety concerns that had led to the rezoning and previous studies, including a 2002 document showing the site being in the high and moderate hazard zones near the clay cliffs.

Further meetings with city officials to show the site is not in danger and push for the rezoning didn't seem to go anywhere.

So last fall, Goeppel said, she "bit the bullet,” spending thousands of dollars to have her own updated study done by EBA Engineering (which has authored a number of city reports on the area) on slope stability specific to 609 Drury St.

"This report stated that continued use and future development of this site was appropriate, if specific mitigation measures were followed,” notes a city staff report to council that came forward last night.

It was after getting her own report done that Goeppel, representing her parents, brought forward the application.

Coun. Dave Stockdale questioned her about the lengthy period it's taken to bring the application forward.

During the three years since they learned of the Environmental Protection zoning, she responded, it wasn't as though the family wasn't doing anything about it.

Goeppel asked council to be mindful that her parents are older now and it can take time for them to digest such news.

She pointed to the meetings she had with city staff and the time it took to do her own research and get the study specifically down to that property.

Throughout her research, Goeppel discovered a photo from 100 years ago showing the clay cliffs as essentially the same as they look today.

It would likely have to be a catastrophic event that would cause any major slide of the clay cliffs, she said.

Such an event would also likely take out the Whitehorse Rapids Dam and cause many other major issues throughout the city, she added.

Her mother, Goeppel said, can recall a 9.2 Richter scale magnitude earthquake years ago in Alaska which shook the city but didn't result in any slide of the cliffs.

Since neighbours began selling their land to the city in the 1970s as part of the escarpment lands acquisition program, a playground, park, trail and stairs up the cliffs have been added, Goeppel pointed out.

The city has continued to buy up escarpment homes as residents have moved out over the years – the price based on assessed market value estimates obtained by both the property owner and the city – but Goeppel stressed that's not the issue at hand.

"It isn't about moving,” she said.

Rather, it's about living in the home and retaining its equity, she said.

Coun. Doug Graham stated later the family would recover their investment if they ever decided to move because the city would purchase the lot from them.

In seeking the rezoning, Goeppel also asked the city not to add a proposed development

agreement to deal with landscaping measures designed to protect against any sloughing or runoff from the cliffs.

She noted she wants the zoning to simply be restored, and there were no such conditions when her parents bought the property in the 1950s.

The first reading of the rezoning bylaw is set to come forward for a council vote next week.

A public hearing on the proposal will follow on Feb. 28, with a staff report on that hearing coming to council on March 7. Second and third reading would then likely follow on March 14.

Coun. Dave Austin was absent from last night's meeting. He is representing the city at this week's annual Mineral Exploration Roundup in Vancouver.