The people factor is missing in the proposed snowmobile bylaw, city council heard Monday night.

Christina Macdonald of the Yukon Conservation Society told council the society supports many aspects of the bylaw, and applauds the amount of work gone into defining and improving the city's network of trails.

It also supports the initiative to indentify and protect environmentally sensitive areas, she said.

Macdonald said from what she's hearing, however, there continues to be issues around noise, personal space and safety issues.

Where she lives in Valleyview, she said, snowmobile noise hasn't been a bother to her.

When she house sat in Copper Ridge for a stretch last year, she suddenly understood what people were talking about, she said.

Macdonald told council there'll be much support required as the city moves forward with further designation of trails and addressing areas of conflict outside environmentally sensitive areas.

Council heard Monday night, for instance, that while sections of the trail network in Riverdale are signed as "Protected Area – No motorized vehicles allowed,” the restriction does not apply to snowmachines.

For the purposes of the protected area bylaw, city staff told council, snowmachines are not identified as motor vehicles.

The new snowmachine bylaw would not prohibit snowmachines on the Protected Area trails, it was pointed out.

Council heard that addressing snowmobile use in areas designated as protected would require a further exercise involving the protected area bylaw.

Motorized vehicles are prohitited on trails in the Chadburn Lake reserve but not snowmachines, for instance.

Settling potential areas of conflict around neighbourhoods and so forth is an important part of the ongoing trail designation process, said Macdonald, the society's wildlife co-ordinator.

"It will need as much support as possible.”

Coun. Ranj Pillai countered Macdonald suggestion's that there is an excessive noise issue in Copper Ridge.

The councillor said he lives near a trailhead, and maybe once or twice a night for no more than 40 seconds he'll hear a snowmachine go by.

With Whitehorse's relatively modest population, Pillai told his council colleagues, a few can spoil it for the whole bunch.

Perhaps focusing enforcement on the hot spots would help, he suggested.

Porter Creek resident Keith Lay said council could have sidestepped the uncertainty and potential conflict had it embraced the recommendation prohibiting the use of snowmachines on city streets in residential neighbourhoods.

Not wanting to burden snowmachine owners with having to truck or trailer their machines to recognized trailheads is not a valid argument, he said.

Lay told council anyone who can afford a snowmachine or ATV already has the means of hauling it around.

Allowing continued use of residential streets means continuing issues of noise and public safety in greenbelt areas around neighbourhoods, he told council.

The proposed snowmobile bylaw, suggested Lay, appears to have forgotten the rights to peaceful enjoyment by ordinary taxpaying residents.

Lay also expressed his frustration with the delay in appointing a trail and greenways committee, a body identified in the city 2007 trail plan to help guide the designation of trails in the city.

It's now 2012, and the committee isn't in place, and from what he understands, the trail network has grown from 150 to 400 kilometres since 2007, he told council.

Doug Hnatiuk of the city's parks and recreation branch said since 2008, the city has continued with its trail designation initiative using task force groups organized for each neighbourhood.

There's a need now to appoint the umbrella trail committee to assist in conflicts that can't otherwise be sorted out, perhaps overlapping interests among neighbourhoods, he told council.

Hnatuik said if a land use issue arose regarding a section of trail through a stretch of Yukon government land, it would be referred to the trail committee.

The recommendation calling for the appointment of the central trail committee – greenways has been removed from the name for reasons of brevity, council was told – is scheduled to go before council for approval next Monday.

Lay, however, asked whatever happened to the 2007 recommendation calling for the establishment of the committee as the primary instrument in ensuring full public participation in the designation of trails around the city?

Council is currently reviewing a new snowmobile bylaw, which was adopted originally in 1972. First reading is scheduled for Monday night.