Four years after the plan for the corridor trail was completed, $500,000 is spent and only 3.5 of nine kilometres are done.
Council made their disappointment known to District of Squamish planning department during the corridor trail presentation at Committee of the Whole meeting on June 8.
"There's some frustration that it's taking so long," said Coun. Patricia Heintzman. "We need to get this done."
Chief administrative officer Kevin Ramsay said staff would work diligently to get the trail completed as soon as possible.
"You have a right to be upset and you have our commitment to make this work."
Construction for the $1.3 million project- all of which came from federal and provincial grants and gas tax transfers -began in September 2008 with a completion date of one year.
Almost two years later a little over a third of it is done, and obstacles are still in plain sight.
Planning director Cameron Chalmers, trails co-ordinator Todd Pope and parks and tourism director Bob Kusch cited a number of reasons for the delay such as conflict with private landowners, CN Rail issues and difficulties with Ministry of Transportation (MoT) over highway right of way.
Council first addressed frustrations with the MoT. Kusch said the trail is now said to be in the highway right of way despite a signed agreement with MoT on rights of way and setback requirements made prior to highway or trail construction.
The Sea to Sky Highway Improvement Project, which was independent from the MoT, signed certain agreements with the district that are not being recognized now that authority is back in MoT hands.
"The whole trail was originally going to be in the highway right of way, and for them to flip opinion on this because of a change in guard is ludicrous," said Heintzman.
Council also criticized the trail's loosely detailed budget.
"The least we can have is a detailed budget," said Mayor Greg Gardner.
"I'd like to see a budget established that outlines exactly where the remaining $800,000 is going," said Coun. Paul Lalli.
Chalmers said the reason the first portion of the highway took up so much of the budget was due to the large amount of wetlands along the Loggers Lane section.
The completed portion of the trail runs from Garibaldi Way to just south of the Adventure Centre and are considered completed, except for a small pinch section about 100 metres north of the Mamquam Bridge.
According to staff, this pinch spot is a result of the Sea to Sky Highway Improvement project and Heintzman expressed dismay that the district would be responsible for fixing it.
"The Sea to Sky Improvement took out part of the trail and they don't have plans to fix it?" said Heintzman.
Chalmers said they would discuss that issue at their next meeting.
The remaining sections are between Garibaldi Way and Depot Road to the north and between the Adventure Centre and Valley Drive to the south.
The section north of Kings Crossing is causing some issues about whether to have the trail on the east or west side of the highway, and if it were on the west side, it would likely need to line the houses to the west of the CN rail track for safety concerns. However, this leads to more private land owners issues.
There is $800,000 left to complete the remaining 5.5 kilometres and $500,000 of that amount was added to the budget after the initial cost analysis.
Coun. Corinne Lonsdale suggested using some of the funds to purchase the private property needed for the trail.
Coun. Rob Kirkham said the district should avoid spending that extra money, and objected to buying property.
"I'm disturbed by this process, I'm not OK with where we're at and I'm not comfortable with us having a $500,000 slush fund," he said.
Heintzman said the 2006 trail committee decided the corridor trail would be paved and there was 100 per cent consensus. The funds for paving will likely be take care of within the project budget.
"Commuter trails absolutely need to be paved for accessibility purposes," said Coun. Bryan Raiser.
Kirkham said he understood how the number of obstacles may have occurred, but "we need to have a solution drawn up."
