Advocating for mountain biking to be part of Northfield’s new Meadows Park

Back in the summer of 2013, I blogged about the mountain biking-related possibilities for Northfield’s new Meadows Park. So it was pretty cool to attend the City of Northfield‘s Meadows Park community planning meeting at the Northfield Middle School on Wednesday night and have mountain biking be mentioned by the consultants (Paul Miller Design and SRF Consulting) as one of the possibilities under consideration.

Meadows Park community meeting Paul Miller Design and SRF Consulting Meadows Park community meeting

Even better, there was some support for it from citizens at the small group discussions, helped along by participation from fellow Cannon River Offroad Cycling & Trails (CROCT) members Marty Larson and Scott Klein. 

Meadows Park community meeting, small group discussion Meadows Park community meeting, small group discussion Meadows Park community meeting, small group discussion

After the meeting, we had some informal discussions with Ward 2 Councilor David DeLongAt-Large Councilor Rhonda Pownell, and PRAB Chair Dale Gehring, as well as City Administrator Nick Haggenmiller, Community Planning and Development Director Chris Heineman, and Interim Public Works Director/City Engineer Brian Erickson.

The CROCT Board has not taken an official position on what we’d like to see in the way of mountain biking for the park.  But in our comments, we talked about the advantages of having:

  • a beginner/intermediate-level singletrack (multi-use) trail around the perimeter of the park
  • a bike park in one corner, with features like pump tracks, dirt jumps, and a skills course, all serving a range of abilities (progression) including a tot area
  • West Trailhead, Lebanon Hills MTB Parka pavilion area with bathrooms, changing facilities, picnic tables, grills, water fountains. See the West Trailhead facilities page for Dakota County’s Lebanon Hills MTB Park for a good example.

The next Meadows Park community meeting will be on Jan. 21.

Want more information about Meadows Park? See these documents that I extracted from the Nov. 20 PRAB meeting agenda packet: