The proposed park land area around Susies and Quarry lakes. (CBC)

Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly is questioning the financial feasibility of creating a municipal wilderness park in the city's Bayers Lake area.

The mayor tells CBC News it would cost "tens of millions of dollars" to buy the private lands needed to create the park, promised three years ago when Halifax adopted a 25-year regional development plan.

Kelly said the city just can't afford to buy the land.

"All the land right now, absolutely not," he said. "Let's put our cards on the table."

The city's 25-year plan banned development in the area while the city assembled the park by buying hundreds of hectares of land from private landowners.

Four of the landowners — Annapolis Group Inc., Armco Capital Inc., Gateway Materials Ltd. and Sisters of Charity — recently filed an application to change the zoning in the area to allow high- and medium-density housing, as well as a commercial development.

Plans for the park are on the back burner while the municipality mulls over the landowners' proposal.

Ruth Jeppesen, a spokeswoman for the Sisters of Charity, said the religious group's portion of the property represents a piece of the organization's financial future.

"In some ways they're marking their place to make sure that whatever … happens in planning as the city goes forward in that area, that they are consulted, that they are included, that they have as many options as possible if and when they decide to pursue those," she said.

'Dropping the ball'

Jeppesen said the Sisters of Charity are not developers and they have no intension of getting into development in the next few years. The nuns' organization owns 53 hectares around Susies Lake — the smallest piece of land in the proposed park area.

Kelly said it's not clear how much of the private land, if any, will ever be purchased to create the park.

"We have to be able to step back and say what is reasonable, what is best for the Sisters of Charity, what is best for HRM's affordability and what is best for the overall development plans for HRM [Halifax Regional Municipality]."

Raymond Plourde, wilderness co-ordinator with the Ecology Action Centre, said what's best for the development of HRM should already have been decided in the original plan.

"The city has a commitment and either it has integrity in this 25-year plan or it has no integrity in this 25-year plan and the whole thing was a sham," he said. "I'd say the councillors should stop listening to the developers' lobbyist and start reading their plan."

Local MLA Diana Whalen said the city is "dropping the ball" and should stand firm on its commitment.

"The expectation rises on what can be there and the value of each and every acre is going to go up, and that makes it ever more difficult for the city to acquire."