CPRD Board Votes to Cease Bicycling Access to Bob & Crystal Rilee Park

During a board meeting on Thursday, September 28, 2023, the Chehalem Parks and Recreation Department (CPRD) board voted 3-2 to remove biking access at Bob & Crystal Rilee Park (Rilee Park) on Parrett Mountain in Newberg starting November 1, 2023, according to the CPRD website.

“We’re never going to make everyone happy, but we have to do what is right,” said CPRD Board President Matt Smith as he seconded board member Jason Fields‘s motion. “As some others have stated, what’s right in this case, in my opinion, is honoring the intent of those who work with us, whether it be families, foundations, individuals, or municipalities. If we are going to be gifted, granted, or sold at a very discounted rate land in the future, we need to keep our promises, and that’s what I believe we need to do here.”

As part of the motion, CPRD Staff is searching for a different location suitable for mountain bikers. The park closed on October 1 to horseback riders and mountain bikes due to the rainy season presenting dangerous trail conditions.

Smith said that this conversation has been on the CPRD table for at least two years. The park’s original master plan did not have explicit rules or regulations regarding mountain biking. However, he added, mountain bikers were few and far between until an out-of-district high school Mountain Biking Club started using Rilee Park regularly for practices around the time when COVID-19 hit. Then, after experiencing shut downs, residents in the area flocked to new outdoor hobbies, including mountain biking.

“It opened the floodgates for people trying to escape their homes, which I completely empathize with,” said Newberg resident and Principal Broker of Thoroughbred Real Estate Group Ryann Reinhofer. “But it was misconstrued as, ‘I can mountain bike here without people respecting or understanding the park’s use.'”

Reinhofer has been working on a solution for mountain bikes and horseback riding at Rilee Park for over two and a half years. After a few near-collision misses with mountain bikers while riding her 1,800-pound horse, she started attending board meetings to ask for more rules and regulations surrounding the mountain bikes at the park. The previous CPRD Board separated the trails — bikes on the gentler west side, horses on the steeper east side — but she said that mountain bikes were still riding horse trails with steeper grades, sharp switchbacks, and blind corners.

“The separation was a joke,” Reinhofer said. “It just wasn’t enforced. There was no signage, no oversight, no real information to let people know.”

During the August 24, 2023 board meeting, Reinhofer gave a presentation to the board asking for the removal of mountain biking trails altogether at Rilee Park. Not only for safety, she said, but to honor the original intent of the park. The CPRD board motioned to continue the discussion during next month’s board meeting.

Members from both groups — equestrians and mountain bikers — showed up to voice support for their respective activities at the CPRD board meeting on September 28. Smith, Fields, and board member Gayle Bizeau voted in favor. Lisa Rogers and Jim McMaster voted against.

“I’m super disappointed that this board has decided to not go with the public’s interest,” said CPRD Board Member Lisa Rogers after the vote. “…It just seemed like it was premature. It may have been that’s what comes out at the end. But I don’t think you’ve given the process a full and complete review.”

In an interview with Newsberg, Newberg community park advocate and member of Chehalem Heritage Trail Advisory Committee Matt Dolphin also said the decision felt rushed and potentially scraps work that was already paid for and in progress.

“They’ve got a number of citizen engagement processes that are currently underway,” Dolphin said. “There are recommendations expected to be ready by spring; the [Heritage Trail Committee] has been researching the matter well over a year at this point. We want to see collaboration and to build bridges in this community — we’ve outlined a way to do that, and would like to see the board move in that direction.”

Exploratory work was paid for and in progress when the board passed the motion: Three master plans were developed for review, all of which included mountain biking trails either in tandem with equestrian trails or separated by the east and west sides of the park (separated by Parrett Mountain Road). Trails survey mailers were sent out last week to a random sample of community members in CPRD’s district soliciting data about how people use the parks to guide future trail development and maintenance.

“I think that when we make a motion and the public doesn’t know that we’re going to make this motion ahead of time, I don’t feel comfortable with that,” said board member Jim McMaster before the vote concluded. “If we’re going to make a motion to do this, then the public should have notice that it’s going to take place, not just come to a meeting and make a motion.”

“This is a board that wants to get things done,” Smith said in an interview with Newsberg. “We could wait to go through this whole process and spend that money on something we’re not doing, or we could make the decision and not waste any time, effort, or money to get this done. Government moves slowly — we know that — but we can try to actually get things done.”

Smith said this can’t be politicized or made into “horses versus bikes.”

“I firmly believe that through collaboration and open dialogue, we all can work together to provide amazing recreational opportunities for all user groups while ensuring the safety of park users,” Smith said in a statement on October 3.

The next Board of Directors meeting is set for October 26, 2023, at 6 p.m. Board meetings are open to the public either on site at 125 S. Elliott Rd. or can view remotely from a live stream on YouTube or join the meeting via Zoom. If you would like to share a presentation, you must do so two weeks prior to the meeting. There is time allotted to field public questions during each meeting.

Learn more here: https://www.cprdnewberg.org/general/page/board-directors-meeting-35