City councillor Doug Graham applauded a proposed city trail plan in theory, but complained it will take too long to see results.

The city's parks supervisor, Doug Hnatiuk, and Deborah Pitt, an Inukshuk Planning and Development spokeswoman, presented the City of Whitehorse 2007 Trail Plan at Monday evening's standing committee meeting.

'The City of Whitehorse has about 800 kilometres of trails that we know about, and new ones are being created all the time,' said Pitt.

The city hired Inukshuk Planning and Development to update a 1997 trail plan document, as part of the 2004 capital budget. Council reviewed a draft report at its June 20 meeting.

'It's been a fairly rigorous three-year process,' said Hnatiuk.

The project has involved a community consultation process in which Hnatiuk said discussions were held in most communities, sometimes three times, to collect as much public feedback as possible.

'It is clear the public wants a grassroots plan approach to the framework,' said Pitt.

The 35-page document proposed Monday evening suggests creating trail use conflict resolution steps, establishing a hierarchy to determine which trails are most important to residents, and mapping the current trails.

Highlighted in the report are conflicts arising from use by both residents on foot and those on all-terrain vehicles (ATVs).

The reports suggests designating some trails for ATV users and banning them from others.

Tasked with doing all this work is a yet-to-be established community trail committee comprised of interested residents and so-called 'trail enthusiasts,' said Pitt. This committee would act as an advisory body to city council to direct decisions on how best to manage city trails.

'These folks would have a broader view of the needs of trails for the city,' said Hnatiuk.

'If we accept this recommendation for this committee, then we're putting this off for another year and a half,' said Graham.

He said funding for the committee would have to come from the budget revealed in November 2008, so the trail plan would not see results until that committee was established and had made some decisions.

There would be further public consultation necessary toward the establishment of the committee, which would then see a budget submission for next year.

'So yes, to answer your question, it would be about that long,' said Hnatiuk.

'I'm concerned because I don't like to see us wait that long,' said Graham.

'I'd hate to see it put off for two or three years just to get a committee put together. I'd like to see it proceed fairly quickly.'

Resident concerns about the city's trails have been highlighted in recent months through the Parks and Recreation Master Plan, the proposed Arkell subdivision walk-through, the presentation on city sustainability and the town hall discussion on land use.

Graham said residents have approached him with concerns about trail-sharing with ATV users, and those concerns cannot go unaddressed for another couple of years.

'I have the impression people in this city would like to see all trails to be non-motorized. I'm talking about four-by-fours and motorcycles,' he said.

Coun. Jan Stick chimed in to say she has seen residents vocalize these wishes on the Millennium Trail.

She said muddy ATVs have been driven down the walking paths, and that residents have stopped the drivers and told them to get off.

'I'm pleased to see that people are taking it on themselves,' she said.

The 2007 Trail Plan will come before city council at next Monday's meeting for a vote on approval.