Councillors agreed Thursday to put the brakes on the Blatchford redevelopment plan, for now, saying they need more information on options available to power the community that was planned to be carbon-neutral.

In a unanimous vote taken Thursday morning, City Council voted to put the project on hold for a year to come up with the best energy utility model for the community, slated to be constructed on land once occupied by the City Centre Airport.

City administration has been directed to work with EPCOR to come up with an energy model for Blatchford, to create a carbon-neutral neighbourhood that only uses renewable energy.

“In terms of who operates it, how it supports the Blatchford community and it’s important not only to council itself, but the building community as well,” Gary Klassen, GM of Sustainable Development said.

Mayor Don Iveson said he plans to lobby the provincial government and Ottawa for money to help the project. Some councillors said without help from other levels of government, the risk to go through with the city’s vision is too great.

It’s not clear how much money will be needed from other levels of government.

“It’s a great vision, it’s totally exciting but we can’t get sucked in by pretty pictures of green buildings and grass growing on things,” Councillor Michael Oshry said in chambers Thursday. “We need to be realistic and make sure it works.”

Before the vote, Councillor Ben Henderson voiced his frustration with delaying the project – saying over six years, studies have been done and experts have been consulted – and that should be enough for council to move forward.

“I don’t want to be sitting here a year from now having this same argument all the way over again,” Henderson said. “I hope we know, I hope we move fairly quickly to come up with answers.”

The site is more than 500 acres, and the community is expected to be home to more than 30,000 people.

The original plan was for the first residents to be moving into the community in 2017, council's decision is putting that back a year.

With files from Nicole Weisberg and Amanda Anderson