More detailed plans for the first two phases of the new Whistle Bend subdivision were unveiled at Monday night's city council meeting when the proposed zones were presented to council members.

Most of the 1,120 proposed units for the first two parts of the subdivision would be built primarily off of Casca Boulevard, the main artery set to be built through the neighbourhood to Range Road.

Skookum Drive, meanwhile, will be realigned to accommodate the new lots.

The first phase would see 93 single-family lots built on between 490 and 720 square metres, 16 duplex units over 480 square metres, 461 multiple family units on between 12,200 and 29,300 square metres and 70 mixed-use units exceeding 23,000.

Those lots are proposed to be available in the fall of 2012, while lots in the second phase would be put on the market a year later.

That phase would see less potential for units though a wider variety with the addition of properties for 89 townhouse units over 320 to 473 square metres.

There would also be potential for 139 single-family units on between 1,195 and 2,165 square metres, 50 duplex units over 480 square metres and 273 multiple-family units over a total of 6,600 square metres to 15,000 square metres.

There's also an eight-hectare property belonging to the Hyland family that is zoned future development which could be developed at the same time.

As city planner Kinden Kosick told council Monday night, the family and territory are currently working on a possible land swap.

"It will be up to the individual property owners to complete design, zoning, subdivision and YESAB (Yukon Environmental Socio-econmic Assessment Board) submissions for their parcels," reads Kosick's report to council.

Along with the zoning for the properties that will be sold in the neighbourhood, a number of other areas are proposed for zoning such as the Greenbelt Principal zone for the green "fingers" that would be throughout the subdivision.

"Principal uses in this zone include nature interpretation facilities and trails, and conditional uses include day-use areas, day-use cabins, and playgrounds," Kosick's report notes. "It is expected that areas within the green corridors could be used for playgrounds where appropriate."

The playgrounds set out in the plan presented Monday night would be 2,600 square metres and 1,800 square metres, with the sites proposed to be zoned parks and recreation.

The same zoning is also proposed for Casca Boulevard to protect the 10-metre buffer on each side.

"As this road will be used by over 7,500 people at full build-out, it is important to retain buffer to shield residences from traffic noise," reads the report.

Next to Range Road before Casca Boulevard would be Eagle Bay Park, which would be zoned as Environmental Protection.

"This zoning permits nature interpretation facilities, outdoor education facilities and trails as secondary uses and lists non-accessory parking, and accessory buildings/structures as conditional uses," reads the report.

"The Whistle Bend Planning process suggested that this area may be appropriate for park space, including a day use area, and educational signage, which would be permitted under the current zoning."

The proposal doesn't sit well with Coun. Doug Graham, who argued buyers want more single-family properties.

While he's pleased with earlier efforts that expanded the minimum lot size, he argued less than 15 per cent of the entire development, which is set to be built over 20 years, is made up of single-family homes.

"I think the restricted residential (zone) is also a positive thing ... but we're only talking about one per cent of the total in the first two phases," he said.

A total of 20 lots are proposed as restricted residential for the second phase of the development.

That zone allows for the larger lots with the more traditional type of homes the city has seen in the past with landscaping and surfacing requirements under the zone.

The other single-family zone proposed for Whistle Bend is comprehensive single-family 2, which was originally set up for the Takhini North development that is underway.

Under it, principal uses would be single-detached housing which could have secondary suites, duplexes, triplexes and parks.

The zoning also includes a list of requirements on setbacks, garages, design standards, porches, vegetation and landscaping.

It's also proposed that the minimum lot size for the zone would increase to 490 square metres for a single-detached house and 555 square metres for a house with a living suite.

While Graham said he can appreciate the city is trying to make a change in housing with the new development, he questioned whether people will buy the new lots.

Planning manager Mike Gau was quick to note that though the number of single-family lots represents the number of units, that's not the case for multi-family lots, where one lot could have a higher number of living units, making it more difficult to compare the two.

"It is a fact we are increasing the number of multi-family sites as per our planning process and demographics ... and providing a whole range of housing types," he continued.

That left Graham questioning what will happen when the lots don't sell.

"Because they're not going to," he said.

"I'm sure I can be wrong on a lot of things, but this isn't one of them. We're not going to sell this many multi-family homes because we still have young families; we have gardeners; we have folks with RVs, canoes, boats; outdoors people that aren't all going to live in townhouses or big apartment buildings, condo developments or whatever you want to call it.

"There's simply not that (demand for) mix at the current time - maybe 25, 30, 40, or 50 years down the road we will have, but then I even question, as I have in the past, that this area will support that kind of development."

Downtown Whitehorse could likely support a higher density because it's an area where residents don't need vehicles or parking and the like, Graham said.

He then went on to wonder if people would be forced to live on the smaller developments because nothing else is available, or move just outside city limits while continuing to use city services when they come into town.

"I can see it coming, and I wonder what can we can do to make a change," he said.

Gau pointed out sites could be rezoned while Kosick later also pointed to the city's sustainability plan in moving forward with developments that have more people living on smaller pieces of land, which reduces the costs by having more people using infrastructure.

Coun. Jeanine Myhre argued the proposal creates more options for home buyers. In the past, she said, the only option for the most part was purchasing single-family homes, which are out of reach for many prospective buyers.

Residents have to be given the option to buy other types of housing, she said.

First reading for the zoning will come forward at council's next meeting on June 15.

If it passes first reading, that would be followed with a public hearing at council's July 13 meeting, with second and third readings proposed for July 27.

The next step would be waiting for the YESAB to do its review, expected to be complete in September.

Engineering work would then begin and continue through the winter, with construction proceeding from next March to August 2013.

The first lots would go on sale in the fall of 2012.