22 hours Ago By Lucy Peterson, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Some Aspen City Council members want to explore other properties for a proposed mountain bike skills park. The Aspen City Council will review the location for a proposed mountain bike skills park and solicit public comment before it decides whether to move forward with the Marolt Skills Trail project. Council members decided to discuss the skills trail project further during an Oct.
15 budget work session, where they were presented the $240,000 budget for the proposed trail. The Aspen Open Space and Trails board recommended city staff include a budget proposal for the Marolt Skills Trail project in July after months of working through the designs and budget proposals. The proposed project, on which the city collaborated with the Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association, is a mountain bike skills trail that would be created on a plot of land along Marolt Place, next to the Marolt Open Space.
During last week’s work session, Parks and Open Space Director Matt Kuhn told council members approval of the $240,000 earmarked in the 2025 budget for the project would allow the city to move forward with the construction. But some council members said they wanted to explore other locations before committing to the proposed land. “I really support a mountain bike skills park, but not here.
I think that Buttermilk or Tiehack would be a really good location for this,” said Councilman Ward Hauenstein. “I don’t support spending money to develop a piece of property that I don’t think is ideally situated for a mountain bike skills park.” The city is waiting for city council approval to move forward with a mountain bike skills trail park near the Marolt Open Space.
There are no other viable city-owned properties for such a project, Kuhn told the Aspen Daily News in an interview. Hauenstein proposed engaging with the Aspen Skiing Co. to discuss developing the project on the Tiehack side of Buttermilk Mountain, where there would be more ample parking spots for people visiting the park.
It is unclear what the timing or collaborations with other entities would look like if council members decided to stray from the Marolt property. Councilman Sam Rose wanted the item to be brought back for a public discussion and Mayor Torre wanted to discuss other locations for the project before approving the budget. The Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association, which is contributing $140,000 to the project if council approves the budget, is pushing for the project to move forward as is.
It has partnered with the city for several years to develop designs and gather feedback from the community about the skills park. “We’re very much a project proponent and we’re a project partner, but we very much respect that this is city open space and that this is a city process,” said RFMBA Executive Director Mike Pritchard in an interview with the Aspen Daily News. “We believe there’s still really strong support for this project from the community, and so we’ll continue to seek to move this project forward in the future.
” During a presentation to the Open Space and Trails board on Thursday, Pritchard said previous analysis of the site determined it is the most feasible city-owned site and has the most favorable attributes for a project of its kind. Approval of the 2025 budget with the $240,000 for the skills trail project would give the city approval to move forward with the project at the Marolt property as early as 2025. A date has not yet been set to hold a public hearing on the project.
The city council will continue to hear budget presentations over the next two weeks. It is scheduled to approve the 2025 budget on first reading on Nov. 12.
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