A local ATV club is requesting passage through Tay Township to connect with trail systems into Severn Township.
Soren Klemmensen, past president of the Central Ontario ATV (COATV) Club, made a presentation to Tay's committee of all council explaining the club's activities and what it does to build and maintain trails.
He said the club is willing and looking to work with staff to find ways of connecting the existing trail system to Tay Township by building new trails, or making agreements with the snomobile clubs in the area or requesting council to designate municipal roads to form the link.
Klemmensen said the snowmobile club has expressed an interest in sharing their trail, provided there are trail connections at both ends.
"The ask we have of Tay Township is to work in collaboration with staff and the town to create a bylaw facilitating the creation of an environmentally sustainable trail system connecting communities," he said.
Coun. Jeff Bumstead said he was concerned about having to allow ATVs to ride not only municipal roads but on Highway 12.
Klemmensen said council has no jurisdiction on Highway 12 as it’s a provincial highway.
"You can only allow access on municipally-owned roads," he said.
Coun. Barry Norris asked how far along the ATV club was in its negotiations with the snowmobile club to use the old CP rail trail.
"I’m in constant contact with them," said Klemmensen. "We haven’t put anything on paper. We are talking about it. They don’t want us to use the trail before we have connections at either end. It makes perfect sense; we don’t want to have a dead-end trail."
Since they can't currently use the CP trail, Norris said, would the club then be asking council tro designate a road to be used by ATVs?
"So would residents have to deal with 400 ATVs in a day?" he asked.
Klemmensen said the club is looking for staff help in identifying where in Tay Township they could build a trail. If a municipal road were involved, it would only be to connect from one trail to another.
"A road is a road not a trail," he said.
As an ATVer, you don't want to drive on the road, said Alain Pominville, president of COATV, in an interview with MidlandToday.
"You might as well be driving your car," he said.
In responding to Norris about the number of ATV users, Klemmensen added, "I’ve never seen that high a number. They’re all spread over the trail system."
Pominville said it may look scary when someone thinks about the 800 or so members of the club using trails in a small township, but he said the reality was far from it.
"(Simcoe County) is a large area and not everybody goes out every day," he told MidlandToday. "On our busiest trail system, even on a busy day, you won't see a large number. We have group rides of 30-40 ATVs at a time. If you don't have an organized ride, you may see a few here and there, but there's no big organization of a thousand ATVs driving around."
Deputy Mayor Gerard LaChapelle asked if the club would want to acquire ownership of a section of the road as part of the trail system and if they would enter into agreements with private property owners.
"We try to create the backbone of the trail on public roadways or things like a rail line, it’s something we know will last," said Klemmensen. "It’s a huge investment with these trails, we could end up spending $40,000 on just gates."
But private landowners are harder to work with, said Pominville.
"For any trail system, we have to have an agreement to be there," he said. "So, a private landowner would have to provide us with an agreement so we can ride through their property. We maintain the trail on their property according to the standrad they want and we protect them through our liability.
"We prefer to be on public property because then someone can't suddenly tell you they don't want you on their property and suddenly you've lost a connection."
Insurance and liability were also concerns.
"In your experience, in the event of something catastrophic happening, have you noticed dealing with insurance is a big issue?" asked LaChapelle..
There are very few lawsuits happening, said Klemmensen.
"When you have a designated trail on a property, there were some reports done by different organizations; the risk of having an accident on a maintained trail are far far less compared to people riding illegally on private properties or off trails," he said.
Coun. Sandy Talbot cautioned her colleagues that this wasn't necessarily a decision council could make, at least not without public feedback.
"I’m sure we would have to have public meetings," she said. "To me, it would be vital. We may have to have a number of open houses to get public feedback."
Mayor Ted Walker brought up concerns around the ATV trail sharing parts of other trails that are used by cyclists, walkers, and horseback riders.
Later, Pominville addressed the issue brought up by the mayor around the sharing of sections of the Ganaraska Trail.
"The Ganaraska Trail is a section of trail that's close to the other rail bed that we have a verbal agreement with the snomobilers for," said Pominville. "It's a walking trail and some people are concerned about having ATVs on a walking trail. However, we do co-exist on many other trails with bicyclists, dirt bike riders, horseback riders, etc. and we have no problems."
While there was lots of discussion, council did not make a decision on the request by the club. Instead council directed staff to take the request into consideration when preparing a report on road safety issues int he future.
That did not disappoint Pominville.
"Just the fact that they allowed us to come and make a presentation is a big step forward," he said. "And if they consider looking at it ... that's all we can ask for. We're hoping to connect the whole county and connect to Severn Township and that's one way to do it. If they're willing to look at it, we're willing to work with them.
"Our goal as the ATV club is to interconnect the province," added Pominville. "We're already connected with our neighbours to the west and we're technically connected with the Baxter-Severn trail, but we're hoping it connects through here, too."
