Bike park proposed for Sumanik Drive

Athletes in the city could soon be adding BMX biking to the list of activities happening in the Mount McIntyre Recreation Centre-Canada Games Centre area.

Athletes in the city could soon be adding BMX biking to the list of activities happening in the Mount McIntyre Recreation Centre-Canada Games Centre area.

At Monday evening’s city council standing committee meeting, a proposal was brought forward for the city to get about 2.7 hectares of vacant Commissioner’s land off Sumanik Drive across from the recreation centre for a proposed BMX and mountain bike dirt-jumping and skills park.

The city’s Parks and Recreation Department is working on getting the land. It’s the Contagious Mountain Bike Club that would oversee the park with money for its development already approved through a Community Development Fund grant as well as their own fundraising efforts, Doug Hnatiuk, the department’s projects co-ordinator, told council.

The city was approached about partnering with the bike club and Yukon Cycling Association on the park, with council approving $10,000 in capital funds along with $2,500 in operational expenses for this year.

The city would likely continue with the operational expenses each year, paying for things like the upkeep of an outdoor toilet and garbage collection, as it does with other facilities around town. The cycling groups would be responsible for the upkeep of the park’s bike facilities, Hnatiuk stressed.

“The community has really embraced this project, both the youth as well as the adults along with some businesses in the community,” he said.

Those in the cycling business see the development as a venue to host clinics that could involve professional riders offering instruction on riding.

Jay Hoots of Vancouver, a professional rider and freeride park expert, visited the territory earlier this year. He has prepared a preliminary drawing of what the park might eventually look like, Hnatiuk said, also pointing to photos of another freeride park in Burnaby, B.C.

The parks use wooden structures and natural terrain, including dirt and rocks for jumps, tricks and general riding.

Whitehorse’s park would feature a skills park that already has the terrain needed for such a development, Hnatiuk said.

“There’s a natural decline slope. It’s a cleared area; it’s an area that was already cleared by the ski association for the (2007) Canada Games, so there’s no tree cutting that’s involved,” he said. “There’s a bit of ground-sculpting that is required.”

Fill would be brought in to create the jumps where needed, with the features built to the International Mountain Bike Standard, Hnatiuk said.

“All of the structures, even though they look somewhat rudimentary, are all designed to specific international standards,” he said. “So really, a lot of work has gone into the development and planning phase of this particular freeride park.”

Now what’s needed is the land to be transferred so the physical work on the park can begin, he explained.

While there are currently ski trails on the site, the Whitehorse Cross-Country Ski Club has been consulted and the park isn’t expected to interfere with the trails.

Questioned by council members, Hnatiuk said the site would be limited to non-motorized bikes with the terrain features, signs and some fencing being used to control traffic.

Questioned by Coun. Dave Austin on which party liability would fall to, Hnatiuk recalled that initially, there had been some discussion around the Yukon Cycling Association obtaining the land on a lease, but that created a liability issue so the city then began looking at the land.

“We ended up talking with our liability insurance agent for the City of Whitehorse and we talked with our financial department ... and we were advised that if the City of Whitehorse was to obtain the land and become the owner of the land, then all liability for this particular park would fall under our general liability insurance policy,” Hnatiuk said.

The site is zoned appropriately as parks and recreation under the zoning bylaw, with a policy in the Official Community Plan also supporting the city obtaining the land.

The policy (6.4.1) states: “The city shall continue the transfer of vacant Commissioner’s land within the city to the jurisdiction for the City of Whitehorse, where practically and economically feasible.”

The site would provide a “safe and dedicated location for mountain bike skills development and recreational biking opportunities,” reads the administrative report presented to council.

Council will vote on first reading of the bylaw to accept the land transfer at its regular meeting next Tuesday night.