ST. LAZARE
Trail-use bylaw undemocratic: Kary

May 2011 trail map: Blue for mixed use, pink for equestrian.

by JIM DUFF

ST. LAZARE — A bylaw revision banning cyclists from equestrian trails throughout the municipality won’t sabotage efforts to draft a master trail plan, says mayor Pierre Kary.
Bylaw 874 revises a number of municipal regulations, including who can ride where. It was expected to be adopted at the tail end of an evening of budget-related council meetings after we went to press last night.
Four councillors, led by Blueberry Forest resident Jean-Claude Gauthier, had indicated at the last meeting they would vote for the ban.
Kary said discussions will continue with an outside consultant on the development of a master trail-use plan incorporating horse and walking trails into a public trail network. At the same time, he and Parks and Recreation director Louis Paquin are working on a plan to extend and link the town’s 15 kilometres of bike trails. Other discussions at the MRC level include St. Lazare’s ATV and snowmobile trails, both of which also use La Pinière, the town’s 315-hectare conservation area.
Kary hopes to bring all three discussions to a common working table prior to a Feb. 22 public consultation where a master trail-use plan will be presented to residents and organizations.
He criticized councillors for attempting to pre-empt the process. “The way this has been handled has been a disfavour to the equestrian community,” said Kary. “The equestrian community has been unnecessarily highlighted in this process because council members did not allow this democratic process to follow its course.”
Anything that can be done, can be undone, he added.“We should participate in the democratic process of public consultation before cementing our opinions...To be intransigent and inflexible at this stage of the process is to close our ears and minds to citizens.”
Gauthier, a member of the Club Équestre Les Forestiers, had chaired the trail-network working table until Kary took over. Their mandate was to meet with any association with a stake in a future trail network to locate trails, determine their use, their access and the type of footing based on the intended use. None of those meetings have taken place, Kary said.
According to the trail-use consulting contract, one of the mandates was to assurer la compatibilité des activités prévues dans les sentiers (la randonnée équestre, la randonnée pédestre, le ski de fond, le vélo, l’interprétation de la nature, etc.)
Ban would apply everywhere
If adopted, Bylaw 874 would ban cyclists from equestrian trails throughout the municipality, not just in La Pinière, says District 1 councillor Nathalie Richard.
“It will apply to many of the trails our kids use to stay out of traffic,” Richard said Friday. “This should be a societal debate, not something rushed through.”
One of the changes proposed would outlaw bikes on equestrian/pedestrian trails. It would also ban horses from cycling/pedestrian trails — except to get to other trails.
The town’s latest trail map, dated May 2011, shows the extent to which the ban will affect cyclists throughout the municipality, not just in La Pinière. Bikes will be barred from Trail 60A, between Sandmere and Symphonie, Trail 64 between Place du Recital and Dynastie and Chemin St-Louis as well as from Trail 50, between du Ravin and the start of 60.