Current Status
Public Hearing Scheduled for Sept. 11th
We have all been waiting over three and a half years for our voices to be heard and now is the time! The next step in this process is for the Jefferson County Planning Commission to hold a hearing to make a recommendation to the Jefferson County Commissioners as to whether they should approve a special use permit for the proposed Shadow Mountain Bike Park or not.
This hearing will include a presentation from county staff on the project and whether they believe the project meets the criteria for a special use permit, then the applicants will present and then the public will be able to offer their comments about the project. After the public hearing the Planning Commissioners will be able to ask questions and then will ultimately come up with their recommendation for the County Commissioners.
The public hearing is confirmed for September 11th starting around 5:30 pm and will continue on September 12th in the evening if needed. The meeting is a hybrid meeting so people can attend in person at the Jefferson County building (100 Jefferson County Parkway in Hearing Room 1) or virtually (we will add the link when we know it). We will have many more details the closer we get to the date and will keep this page updated as soon as we know them.
What is the Proposed Bike Park?
On January 5, 2021, Phil Bouchard and Jason Evans from New Hampshire met with the community to propose a lift-access downhill and freeride mountain bike park to be built on 273 acres of a Colorado State Land Board parcel 2.2 miles west of Route 73 on Shadow Mountain Drive. The bike park name was originally Full Send Bike Ranch, but was renamed Shadow Mountain Bike Park in 2022.
The property is zoned Agricultural Two (“A2”), currently undeveloped, and occasionally used for agricultural and grazing purposes. The developers are asking for a special use permit to begin construction of their bike park. They believe the project will have minimal impact on matters of great concern for area residents, including wildfire risks, excess traffic, destruction of key wildlife habitat and vegetation, overloading emergency response teams, and impairing the public health and welfare (learn more about why we disagree with this here).
The proposal calls for construction of a four-passenger chairlift to transport guests and bikes to the top of Conifer Mountain, creating 16 miles of trails, constructing access to and space for a 300-car parking lot to accommodate guest vehicles, a day lodge with restrooms, changing rooms, bike and equipment rentals and other guest services. To address food and beverage needs there will be locally based food trucks (whether they will be allowed to serve alcohol is not addressed in the application).
The developers propose to operate the bike park from March 1 through the end of November, a 9-month season (in some places they talk about operating from April – December). Special events such as fat tire events or other winter activities may be held from December 1 to March 1- in essence making for year-round operations. During the winter special event time, they propose that select trails within the bike park could possibly be open to the local community for hiking and snowshoeing.
They are expecting an average of approximately 700 downhill and freestyle mountain bikers daily, with the developers estimating at the Community Meeting in 2022 there would be more than 1,000 bikers on peak days in 500 cars that would be driving to and from the Bike Park (1,000 vehicle trips) on Shadow Mountain Drive.
You can review the entire application and comments from the county in the chart below.
Learn More About the county’s process to review the application
Where Would the Bike Park Be Located?
A map done by a neighbor helping to depict where the proposed bike park location is.
The developers submitted site plan.
Read the Application For Yourself
The application and associated files are many hundreds of pages, so we have broken them down into smaller chunks. Below you will find links to all of the various parts of the application the developers made for a special use permit along with comments agencies made back in response. We have grouped these files by topic so that you can find a topic you care about, read what the developers submitted in their application then read the comments from all of the applicable agencies that responded on those sections, then you can read the developers’ responses to those comments.
The Final Application Has Been Posted
On August 28th the final application was posted on the Jefferson County website. You can view the files here. If you want to see how the project has evolved the histrocial documents are available below.
Final Application
Topic
Application
1st Referral Comments from Agencies & Developer Responses
2nd Referral Comments from Agencies & Developer Responses
3rd Referral Comments From Agencies
Entire Application (please note these are very large files)
Overview
Air/ Noise
Fire
Historical
Land Use & Master Plans
Transportation
Water
Wildlife
Our Top Concerns
We oppose the Bike Park because they plan on developing a pristine meadow into a commercial enterprise putting our mountain, our community, wildlife, and environment at risk.
Safety
Adding 940 vehicle trips per day like the developers propose on a road that is a winding, narrow two-lane road with no shoulders and blind driveways puts everyone at risk
Emergency Responder Resources
The Bike Park will provide only first aid, leaving Elk Creek Fire volunteers to respond to all serious accidents on the property reducing avalability for the rest of the community.
Wildfire
The proposed development area is in an extreme wildfire risk area with no evacuation plan.
Wildlife
The proposed development area provides habitat and migratory corridor for a diverse wildlife population.
Air & Water
The car pollution, human waste, and water needs of hundreds of mountain bikers a day will have detrimental impacts.