Proposal for a new bike park in Colorado's Jefferson County voted down

Some Colorado residents in Jefferson County made their voices heard and county leaders voted against a proposal for a new bike park on Tuesday. The bike park would have been called the Shadow Mountain Bike Park and it would have been built on more than 200 acres of land near Conifer.  

There was quite a bit of criticism over the plans. The park would have offered more than 16 miles of trails, a lodge and a 300-stall parking lot.

The proposal was denied by a 2-1 vote by the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners. Tuesday's action followed a recommendation from the planning commission in September that the plans be rejected.

"It was a passion project that we thought made sense for the community, so to see something that we honestly feel like is a good fit ... is tough," said Phillip Bouchard, who along with Jason Evans has been at the helm of the project for years.

John Lewis is among the Conifer residents who came to Tuesday's board meeting wearing red, the symbol of the opposition to the bike park.

"We're just proud as punch of our entire community," Lewis said. "It's not just us, it's the whole community. This was truly the effort of thousands of people.

Some of the concerns about the proposal included losing older-growth forest, traffic and a lack of infrastructure to support the volume of people that might have come to the park.