In two years, one of Columbia's most favored amenities - nearly 90 miles of running and biking pathways - is scheduled to be completed, including refurbishing sections built more than three decades ago.

By 2004, the Columbia Association plans to replace and repair about 10,000 linear feet of pathways and complete a new path system in River Hill, bringing to a close the long effort.

The homeowners association's board of directors has supported - with a straw vote - spending $388,000 for the River Hill paths and $417,000 for repairs as part of the 2004 capital budget, which the board is expected to approve in February.

Winding through all of Columbia's 10 villages, the pathways attract numerous bikers, joggers and dog-walkers and give residents access to the area's village centers, schools and pools without a car.

About 10 years ago, the association began refurbishing older sections of the pathways - filling cracks, fixing root damage and repairing deteriorating asphalt. By 2005, more repairs may be necessary, said Chick Rhodehamel, the association's vice president for open-space management.

"We've got a whole range of alternative transportation taking place on those pathways, and that's one of the reasons we're trying to be on top of things," he said.

The pathways are complete in all of the villages except River Hill, Columbia's newest, incorporated in 1991.

The village's final 11,000 linear feet of pathways in the Pheasant Ridge III development, as well as four pedestrian bridges, are to be completed by April 2004.

Three tot lots - a major amenity accompanying the pathways - also are estimated to be built by that time.

Susan Smith, River Hill village manager, said residents are becoming excited about the prospect of their village's open-space amenities being completed soon. This winter, residents are scheduled to begin offering their opinions about equipment that should be installed in the tot lots.

The tot lots will cost about $180,000, which the Columbia Association board has agreed to place in the 2004 capital budget.

"People are looking forward to it," Smith said. "Some of them have been in their houses for a couple years, so it would be nice to have everything completed."

Some River Hill residents were not always excited about pathways, however. Two years ago, a plan to build a 1,400-foot pathway to connect the Pheasant Ridge I and II developments upset some who lived closest to the area. They were worried the path would attract strangers, litter and crime.

Residents of the two subdivisions, as well as the village board, ultimately voted in favor of the path.

Despite such concerns, the pathways remain one of Columbia's most widely used amenities available to residents for free (aside from paying the lien attached to all Columbia Association properties). In a Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc. survey conducted in the spring, 94 percent of the 807 adult residents questioned replied that they use the pathways, lakes and parks in the suburb.

"I think [the pathways] are the most popular thing that CA does," said Wolfger Schneider, Columbia council member in Harper's Choice who often ditches his car on weekends for his bike to explore the pathways. "You go out on a nice day and everyone is walking their dog or walking with their wife or husband."

The Columbia Association open-space department has also proposed a number of other projects that the association board has approved with straw votes for the 2004 capital budget, including $110,000 for restoring 13 basketball courts and three tennis courts, and $200,000 to replace five tot lots.

The open-space department also requested $137,000 to replace eight of the 251 pedestrian bridges throughout Columbia; $50,000 would be put toward replacing the 60-foot bridge bellow the spillway pond at the Lake Elkhorn dam. Built in 1976, the bridge last underwent extensive renovation in the late 1980s.

All of the projects proposed for the 2004 fiscal year capital budget will not be formally approved until the association's board of directors passes the budget in February. The board is aiming for a capital budget of about $8 million.

One significant - and the most expensive - project proposed by the open-space department may not come to fruition, however.

A $1 million plan to dredge Lake Kittamaqundi and return the Little Patuxent River to its original configuration, preventing large amounts of sediment from flowing into the lake, is contingent on receiving an additional $1 million from another agency.

But the Columbia Association likely will not get that money from Howard County.