Development of biking park placed on fast track
FAYETTEVILLE — The developers behind a planned mountain-biking attraction that’s scheduled to host a 2022 world championship event say they aren’t worried about building the trails and other features in time.
The Fayetteville City Council last week unanimously approved a conceptual plan for Centennial Park at Millsap Mountain. The plan includes nearly 17 miles of mostly soft-surface trails weaving around the mountain, along with children’s play areas, places to picnic, a canopy walk, stage and a spot for hammocks.
The park is to host the International Cycling Union’s Cyclocross World Championships scheduled for Jan. 2930, 2022. It will be the second time that the event is held in the United States. Louisville, Ky., hosted the event in 2013.
Cyclocross is akin to mountain biking, involving short courses with obstacles, hills, steps and rough terrain that prompt riders to get off their bikes and run for certain parts and then get back on their bicycles. Its races began in the early 20th century in Europe. The sport came to the United States in the 1960s and 1970s.
The city of Fayetteville, the nonprofit trial-building organization NWA Trail Blazers, CEI Engineering and the Runway Group are working to create the mountain-biking and cyclocross course on 228 wooded acres west of Interstate 49 and north of U.S. 62.
Most cyclocross courses are built a few weeks before a race and taken down afterward, said Brendan Quirk with the Runway Group, which is a Walton family company that is taking on programming at the site. The city will join a few others in the country with a year-round site for training and events, he said.
AN ART
The next step in the project is to get all of the contracts in order, said Erin Rushing, NWA Trail Blazers executive director.
The city and the Trail Blazers are splitting the workload. The city will pay for and oversee some of the more basic elements, such as an 80-space parking lot, restrooms, an access road from Old Farmington Road and signs, outdoor furniture and sidewalks.
The budget on the city’s side is $985,000. That money will come from the bond issue for parks that voters approved in April, said Ted Jack, park planning superintendent. Contractors will need to be hired to do the work.
The Trail Blazers will handle development of the trails. CEI, which drew up the plan, will help on the engineering side, Rushing said. A separate contractor will build the trails.
The trails will range in difficulty, from a leisurely riding experience to professional grade, the plan shows.
The plan is to apply for a grant from the Walton Family Foundation to pay for building the trails, Rushing said. The foundation has spearheaded the project from the beginning, providing a 50-50 matching grant with the city to buy the land from Centennial Bank last year.
The foundation covered half of the cost of the $3.3 million purchase, giving the city an interest-free loan to cover the rest. The city has five years to pay the loan.
Rushing said the trails team is now working out the cost of building the trails. Much of the final design will depend on the terrain and what’s out there, he said.
“It’s an art, what these guys do,” he said. “The angles, the slopes, the drainage, the reverse grades, it’s all an art.”
COEXISTING
Rushing said he has no apprehension about getting the trails finished in time for the world championships. Construction could begin this fall, he said.
The world championship event has a projected $2.3 million economic impact on the region, according to figures Quirk provided. Other largescale events, such as the USA Cycling National Cyclocross Championships and the International Cycling Union’s mountain biking World Cup, could each have an economic impact of $1.3 million to $2.5 million if the region can host them, according to Runway’s projections.
The numbers are based on studies done after major USA Cycling and International Cycling Union events, said Devin Howland, the city’s economic vitality director.
The park also will host smaller events. BikeNWA held the cyclocross Oz Cross event in November and will do it again Oct. 5-6 at the mountain.
Paxton Roberts, BikeNWA executive director, said Oz Cross doesn’t need the trails because the event uses the open space at the top of the mountain with makeshift courses. Organizers tear down what they put up after the event, and the grass grows back over course spots, he said.
Organizers with the world championships anticipate 8,000 to 10,000 people will attend.
There won’t be a conflict if trail construction for the park happens at the same time as the Oz Cross event, Roberts said. The trails mostly wind farther down the mountain, while Oz Cross will happen in the clearing at the top, he said. “We’ll coexist very easily,” Roberts said.
A FULL WORKOUT
The city’s partnership with the Walton Family Foundation to build the park joins a growing trend of private-public investment in cycling facilities, said Ken McLeod, policy director for the League of American Bicyclists.
The Waltons’ investment in the region has had a visible influence on other parts of the country, with bicycle advocacy groups, municipalities and investors putting their heads together to build new attractions, he said.
Cyclocross also is growing in the United States, McLeod said. The sport is basically the CrossFit of mountain biking, and those who aren’t inclined to take part can enjoy being spectators, he said.
“I think people are drawn to it because it’s a fun and fast sport,” McLeod said. “There’s always something different in the course. There’s a lot of turning; there are the obstacles you’re dealing with. It’s a really engaging way to ride. It’s a full workout.”
Mike Levitsky, a regional cyclocross race promoter, said cyclocross probably serves as the most accessible form of cycling. Riders can use almost any type of bike that has decent tire tread and don’t have to rely on becoming part of a group to participate, he said.
Levitsky teaches a weekly clinic on the sport. Enrollment is pretty evenly divided between men and women, and adults and children, he said.
Having the year-round courses at Centennial Park will help the sport, he said.