The City of Regina's proposal to build a roadway through the McKell Wascana Conservation Park should be discarded, local conservationists say.

The proposed road would connect the Wascana Parkway south of the University of Regina to Prince of Wales Drive just north of the Wascana Country Club.

The goal would be to ease the traffic pressure on Arcola Avenue, which has become increasingly congested as the city's southeastern neighbourhoods have grown.

The proposal has alarmed Ducks Unlimited Canada, which manages the conservation easement over the area. The easement prevents most forms of development on the land.

"What is the plan, and are there other alternatives that would avoid having to go through a very precious natural area inside the city?" asked Michael Champion, the organization's regional manager of industry and government relations.

There are mechanisms to allow for development within the easement, but it would be costly to developers and damage the ecosystem, Champion said.

"We've got increased wildlife collisions, the dissection of an already fragile ecosystem which causes a loss of ecosystem services to some degree, and then a modification of the hydrology which will cause a further loss of ecosystem services."

The conservation area covers 171 acres, centred primarily along Wascana Creek.

The Wascana View Action Committee, which also opposes the new road, sent a letter to city council and the mayor outlining its concerns.

In addition to ecological damage, it said the $300,000 price tag for the city's study of the issue is too expensive in light of recent budget constraints. It could also cause floodplain issues and public safety concerns from the increased traffic, the group said.

Group member Jack Huntington said he acknowledges the traffic concerns raised by the city and he isn't opposed to all development. He suggested the city should add lanes to Arcola Avenue instead.

"It's an east-west problem, not a north-south problem," Huntington said.

The city has no legal basis to proceed with the project since the easement is controlled by Ducks Unlimited Canada, he added.

Long term planning

Ward 4 city councillor Mark Burton rejected the idea that more lanes on Arcola would do the job.

"You can add third lanes all you want east of the Ring Road. It's not going to solve the problem," he said, adding that the construction process needed to add more lanes would "be like a bad snow day every day for two years" for commuters.

"As you start having new subdivisions in the southeast, you have to properly connect the city," he said. "This [road expansion] has been planned for decades."

Mayor Chad Bachynski echoed Burton's view, but said he wants to reassure residents that the project is still in its very early stages.

"That's been on the books for like decades, knowing that sometime in the future, there's going to be some kind of a connection needed to try and alleviate some of that traffic," he said.

"There's no grader going out to move dirt anytime soon. The first step is a functional study where we need to get those stakeholders together to have that public engagement, to understand what those impacts are."

In a prepared statement, the city said land considerations and regulatory requirements are still under review.

"Details on future opportunities to learn more about the project and provide feedback will be shared as soon as possible," the statement said.

Construction, if it proceeds, is still years away.