Five new sports fields will be built near Minnekhada regional park in Coquitlam over the next two decades — or once the area's nine private land owners move from their homes.

On Monday, city council voted 7-2 to give final reading to a bylaw to change the official community plan for 60 acres bounded by Oliver and Quarry roads, Gilleys Trail and Minnekhada park; the city of Coquitlam owns three of the 12 lots slated for development.

The controversial decision came after a two-hour public hearing last week at which 15 speakers — many of them the land owners affected — urged city council to turn down the application, saying they felt like hostages with their property rights being taken away.

They also warned the land wasn't suitable for a tournament site as it's in bear habitat.

Their comments flew in the face of the support of the North Coquitlam Ratepayers' Association, which in a letter to the city last year, stated the site was "excellent for the establishment of a major park and playing fields as it is in all probability the flattest area in northeast Coquitlam."

Coun. Lou Sekora took the side of the land owners, saying the city could swap some of its land on Burke Mountain. He also blasted the city for its "mistreatment" of the land owners and pressed city staff to release the amount awarded by the city during a recent sale of a five-acre unserviced lot that the owner wanted to subdivide; the purchase price was $1.65 million.

On Tuesday, Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart said that owner also received compensation as his subdivision bid couldn't be processed because of the pending OCP change bylaw. Neither he nor city staff would disclose the full amount as the details were private.

Still, Stewart said the $1.65-million payout "is slightly more than what he would have gotten on the current market" and the price was based on a one-acre lot. "He was a willing seller and he had a willing buyer" — the city, said Stewart, who also said the nine owners "will be treated fairly" and "will be able to stay on their land as long as they want."

The mayor also commented on criticism of city staff, saying some received threatening phone calls while city council contemplated the changes. A senior parks manager who has been involved in the development had a public hearing sign dumped on his front yard.

At Monday's meeting, a few owners shouted as Stewart and Coun. Mae Reid spoke, with Stewart called a "liar" after saying the city couldn't boot owners off their land.

"There's nothing weird or strange here," Reid said, after council was accused by Sekora and others in the audience of having a hidden agenda on the market values. Reid looked at a group in the gallery that was heckling (and had been warned by Stewart to be calm or be excused from council chambers) and said she didn't like their "smarmy, little comments."

Coun. Fin Donnelly said he struggled with his decision as the presentations at the public hearing were persuasive. Still, development for and on Burke — including the David Avenue bridge — has started "and it's going to be inevitable that this area will be transformed in the next 20 years.

"In the end," he said, "I think we have to make hard choices."

After the meeting, Coun. Brent Asmundson, a past president of the Northeast Coquitlam Ratepayers Association who lives a kilometre from the proposed site, said while he supports five new sports fields going into that area, he doesn't approve of the land-use re-designation.

He said he did not excuse himself from the vote for a perceived conflict of interest as he has no pecuniary benefit.

jwarren@tricitynews.com