Back in October, to the relief of many and real disappointment of others, the Mt. Hermon Association announced there would be no plans for a “Velocity Mountain Bike Park” on Felton Meadow. Mt. Hermon informed the Felton community via its website, stating, “The costs associated with developing the Felton Meadow property have exceeded our current capabilities and we have decided to forego any development.” Many residents in Felton remember the sharp community opposition to a large housing project proposed on the meadow back in 2008. Prior to Mt. Hermon buying the 15-acre property, situated between the Felton Faire shopping center and Zyante Road, it was considered a local treasure of open space. A holding aquifer of wetland that mitigates flooding and wildlife sanctuary. But the property is, nonetheless, the private property of the Mt. Hermon Association.
“I don’t know if you remember last January and February,” said Nate Pfefferkorn, Vice President of Strategy and Adventure for Mt. Hermon. “But like most businesses in the San Lorenzo Valley, the first quarter of last year was hard, and we took quite a hit, with the storms closing Highway 9, and then Highway 17.”
In the year prior to last winter, in 2015, local pressure was brought to bear on Mt. Hermon to engage in a full-scale environmental impact report (EIR) for the proposed “Velocity Bike Park”, which had not been initially required by the Santa Cruz County Planning Department.
The “Velocity Bike Park’ was envisioned as a destination recreation facility. Plans included bike trails and pump tracks cut and molded through property, along with an aerial ropes course centered on a 53-foot high platform for climbers. Additionally planned was a mechanized moving walking way taking riders to the top of the trail for a start to the downhill course. A fully established park, it would have also featured parking, community facilities, bathrooms and maintenance outbuildings.
“The detractors began characterizing the plans as some kind of ‘Mountain Bike Disneyland’, but it’s going to look green,” said Lisa Olson in an interview with the The Sentinel.
Nancy Macy, chairperson of the Environmental Committee of the Valley Woman’s Club, a nonprofit organization known for running the recycling centers in the San Lorenzo Valley, took the lead in raising awareness of the project back in early 2015. Not only did several local environmental advocates protest the lack of a complete EIR, Macy explains, but they alerted other state agencies like the California Department of Fish and Wildlife about the project, which subsequently recommended that the Santa Cruz County Planning Department require a full-scale EIR from Mt. Hermon.
“We spent lots, and lots and lots of money on this project the year before and throughout last year,” Pfefferkorn said. “Especially after the full EIR was required. After the hard winter we had last year, we finally came to the realization that we just couldn’t afford the park it in the financial shape we were in.”
With estimates of the construction costs beginning to balloon and Mt. Hermon’s overall financial situation somewhat strained, the bike plan was discontinued.
“We just decided to pull the plug on the bike park and focus on our existing programs,” Pfefferkorn said.
There are no current plans to utilize the property, and there’s been conversations about walking trails, picnic areas, and other “low impact/ non-development uses”, according to Pfefferkorn.
“We are content for the time being to just hold the property until we decide sometime in the future what the best use of it will be,” Pfefferkorn said.
There has been an ongoing communication with the Santa Cruz County Planning Department about what they think would be appropriate, Pfefferkorn explained.
“I have a great deal of respect for what Mt. Hermon does, in terms of their ministry and their summer camp programs, and I obviously think they made the right decision to abandon the bike park project,” Macy said. “Going forward, we certainly want to work together with Mt. Hermon to come up with mutually beneficial uses of the property.”
