Cherry-picked Results Presented to Council: Bike Park Feasibility Study Update
On March 25, 2025, City staff presented an update to City Council on the Bike Park Feasibility study (you can provide input here).
This update selectively used results from a recent survey of Fort Collins residents done to inform the Parks & Recreation Master Plan.
The only graph included for council showed residents’ responses to a question regarding their unmet or partially met needs for several outdoor recreation facilities:
The response shows only 6.8% indicated that bike parks were unmet or partially met. Staff highlighted this result, and also the result for mountain bike courses and stated that these could be “fused together” to inflate the apparent need for bike parks. This is inappropriate. The survey listed 20 specific facilities (and included an “other” category”), clearly intending to get detailed responses.
The survey also asked residents to indicate the top 4 most important facilities.
Paved, multi-use trails (64.8%), hiking trails (57.5%), and natural areas/wildlife habitat (52.6%) were all rated as most important for over half of city residents. Bike parks were chosen by only 2.9% (and mountain bike courses by only 9%).
This survey shows that residents did NOT indicate a high demand and need for another bike park in Fort Collins (yes there are other bike parks in and around Fort Collins).
The graphs below shows the funding priorities derived from the survey responses:
1. Natural Areas/wildlife habitat (168)
2. Hiking trails (161)
3. Paved, Multiuse Trails (157)
Bike parks ranked 16th of a total of 21 outdoor facilities, and received a LOW (<70 score) priority for investment with a score of 50.
The (very costly) bike park feasibility study is occurring simultaneously with the (also very costly) City’s Hughes “Civic Assembly” process, which will see ~20 people direct Council on the future of Hughes. Make no mistake, it’s not an accident that these two outreach efforts are happening at the same time. Staff’s timeline for the feasibility study states their intention to complete it for the Civic Assembly.
The objective of the bike park feasibility study is to collate and present the results to the Civic Assembly delegates, where a bike park lobby will most certainly claim that a 60-80 acre bike park is just what the City desperately needs, and it needs to be at Hughes, despite widespread opposition.
A small, vocal group wants to see Hughes used for a recreation hub and large recreation tourism bike park. (Don’t even ask about the so-called “Wildlife and Nature Campus” zoo-like proposal, which now wants the ENTIRE property and to OWN it as well.)
The FULL SET of survey results should be influencing council decisions, not cherrypicked data.
In summary, the top three outdoor facilities blew the others out of the water, but again they were not presented to Council or the public in this meeting. Fortunately, some very astute residents and researchers saw this and called out the “unconventional” data practice to City Council at the following regular Council Meeting on 4/1/2025.
It is crystal clear that more residents want Natural Areas/wildlife habitat and soft surface and paved trails than want another bike park in Fort Collins. And that those outdoor recreational uses are a priority investment for the City. No amount of cherry-picking of data will change that. So, we will continue to listen to our residents and voters, and advocate for Hughes as a 100% Natural Area with minimal, LOW-impact recreation for all.
Bike Park Examples from Across the Country. Is this really appropriate at Hughes?
