The Kizell wetlands are part of the larger South March Highlands in Kanata, which is also site of the controversial Beaver Pond development. CBC CBC

Residents against the South March Highlands housing developments are concerned about a "secret" meeting city officials had earlier this year they say was a breach of ethics and law.

The meeting occurred in August and included the head of the city's planning department, John Moser, and consultants hired by the developer, KNL. Officials discussed the early results of an environmental assessment.

Paul Renaud, an environmentalist and long-time critic of the development plan, said he has been asking to see a preliminary stormwater study for the area under question — known as the Kizell Wetlands — for nine months.

His group submitted a formal access to information request in September and received the consultant’s report this week.

The report contains minutes taken from the August meeting where the city’s planning officials and consultants discussed drainage conditions in the area.

Renaud said it was wrong that the developers were being given inside information he says is crucial to the project's outcome while concerned citizens were being kept in the dark.

"I think they ought to decide whether they're going to allow this kind of skullduggery to occur or whether they're going to run the city in an open and transparent manner," Renaud said.

Planning staff said in a statement that KNL is a landowner with an approved subdivision and as such it is acceptable and appropriate that they be consulted on the future of the wetland.

Kanata North councillor Marianne Wilkinson said she did not see the problem with the meeting.

"They’ve told me they're not trying to keep the community out, it's a case of trying to get all the information before you go out to the community,” Wilkinson said.

In September the Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources declared a stretch of wetlands connected to the South March Highlands in Kanata North as "provincially significant."