It’s looking like the Stevens area at the northwest tip of the city boundaries will be taken off the table as a future gravel quarry.

At its meeting Monday, city council approved second reading of the bylaw required to update the Official Community Plan (OCP) that will guide development in Whitehorse out to 2040.

It’s expected third and final reading will come back before council in six to eight weeks, after the required review by Community Services Minister Richard Mostyn.

Most of the discussion Monday regarding the OCP update centred around the future of the Stevens area, which contains one of the largest known gravel deposits in the city, if not the largest.

But there has been a major lobby effort to maintain the area abutting the Yukon River as wilderness enjoyed by many.

City administration is re-commending a portion of the Stevens area be designated in the OCP as natural resource extraction in order to provide granular resources.

But Coun. Ted Laking introduced an amendment to reject the administrative recommendation and not designate a portion of the Stevens area as a future quarry site.

The amendment was passed in a close 4-3 vote, with Mayor Laura Cabott and councillors Dan Boyd and Jocelyn Curteanu voting against the amendment.

In explaining his rationale for the amendment, Laking noted the petition received by the city signed by 9,400 people who want the Stevens area to be left as is and not used as a future quarry site.

Rejecting the designation as a future gravel source will show people that council did indeed listen to them, he said.

Laking said residents in a substantial area of the city, both the Hidden Valley and MacPherson subdivisions, have been very clear in their opposition to quarrying in the Stevens area.

Laking said he was in full support of the administrative recommendation to “initiate a study to determine the approximate lifespan and amount of granular resources remaining at current quarries within the city as well as identify potential future sources of granular resources.”

Both Premier Ranj Pillai and Energy, Mines and Resources Minister John Streicker, Laking noted, have said the Stevens area is not a priority for gravel extraction until 2025.

“So we have ourselves some breathing room,” Laking said.

He said if the study comes back saying the Stevens area is the only place conducive for quarrying, there is always the ability to change the OCP and allow future quarrying.

City manager Jeff O’Farrell said the idea of a study to look at granular resources in the city is a new action plan and the proposed study is very much in the early discussion phase.

Mike Gau, the city’s director of development services, told council the good news is that the Yukon government is already doing some work along with the Yukon Geological Survey looking at existing gravel resources and the aggregate potential.

The government is also looking at some of the availability questions, he said.

He said the government is trying to flush out the supply and demand scenario.

O’Farrell told council many communities protect their gravel resources.

“We could not imagine recommending an OCP that does not identify future granular resources as a designation within the OCP,” he said.

Gau noted the Stevens area was included in the city’s forecast of a 20-year supply.

The city does not have to have a 20-year supply scenario but it’s definitely best practice to have one, he said.

Gau said without Stevens, the city will have to look elsewhere to fill out its 20-year supply forecast, and that may be a product of the recommended study into gravel resources in the city.