NEWBERG, Ore. — A consultant hired by the Chehalem Parks and Recreation District has recommended opening Bob and Crystal Rilee Park and Ewing Young Park to mountain bike use within three months, delivering findings commissioned in February.
The report findings are not a representation of what the CPRD Board of Directors will decide to do, but rather will provide the board with guidance when deciding the best course of action for mountain biking facilities within the district.
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The report, published by C2 Recreation Consulting on the CPRD website June 4, assessed mountain bike access needs across the district and evaluated 10 sites as potential locations for trail development alongside CPRD staff, Yamhill County staff, trail users, and staff from Taste Newberg. The $10,000 study was commissioned by the CPRD Board of Directors at its Feb. 26, 2026, meeting after more than three and a half hours of public testimony that drew more than 70 attendees.
The question of mountain bike access at Rilee Park has been a topic of discussion since September 2023, when the prior CPRD board — made up of current board members Matt Smith, Jason Fields, and Jim McMaster, as well as former board members Lisa Rogers and Gayle Bizeau — voted 3-2 to remove cycling access from the 325-acre Parrett Mountain property. Smith said that the 2023 decision was the result of “hundreds of comments and contentions” since at least 2020.
That decision directed staff to identify an alternative mountain biking location within the district — a directive that went unfulfilled for more than two years before a newly elected board, which saw McMaster reelected and directors Nick Konen and Brandon Slyter elected, joining Smith and Fields, ordered the study this spring.
Near-Term: Two Parks Recommended
C2’s near-term recommendation — a 12-to-24-month window — centers on two parks: Bob and Crystal Rilee Park and Ewing Young Park.
At Ewing Young Park, the report recommends opening existing trails to bike use and installing trail etiquette signage as a first step, followed by trail improvements to better accommodate children and less experienced riders. Longer-term steps would include adding a mountain bike skills area near the existing BMX track and skatepark, connecting the BMX and skatepark area to W. Weatherly Way, and — if a bridge across Chehalem Creek is installed — developing a multi-use bike and hike trail network on newly accessible land.
At Bob and Crystal Rilee Park, the report recommends reopening the majority of existing trails to cyclists within three months, particularly those near the main eastern trailhead and south of the field, while simultaneously installing trail etiquette and directional signage.
Within 12 months, the report calls for a mountain bike trails plan designed to improve the experience for pedestrians, equestrians, and cyclists alike while reducing maintenance costs. Implementation of that plan, including closing, rerouting, and building new trails, would follow in the 12-to-24-month window.
The report anticipates resistance to reopening Rilee Park and addresses it directly.
“These initial actions will likely be met by resistance from other trail users, especially at Bob & Crystal Rilee Park,” the report states. “This passion to preserve current trail experiences is not a negative condition, as it ensures that a range of park users will be involved to refine access opportunities at Bob & Crystal Rilee Park during the planning process.”
The report argues that opening trails ahead of a formal plan is strategically necessary to enable a legitimate multi-user planning process.
“If the trails are not opened to riders before the plan is enacted, however, experience locally and across the state indicates that opponents of mountain biking will use counterproductive techniques to forestall even the start of the planning process in an effort to curb access for cyclists.”
CPRD Superintendent Clay Downing said he raised concerns with the consultant during the drafting process about how user conflict was treated in the analysis. Downing said early drafts did not appear to address user conflict as an evaluation criterion, and he asked C2 about it.
“The consultant and report’s author clarified that the report does not view user conflict as a constraint but as a decision,” Downing said. “In the perspective of the consultant, elected officials and/or district staff possess the ability to determine what activities could and should be present to best serve the public.”
Downing said that framing means the existing uses at parks like Rilee — and the conflicts that could arise from adding cyclists — are treated as manageable policy choices rather than obstacles to site selection. The consultants did not account for public resistance when determining the eligibility of a site, as that factor is more of a board decision.
“Myself and staff still have real concerns about existing uses, changing park and recreation opportunities that the public is accustomed to, and limiting user conflict,” Downing said. “However, the consultant’s report is written from a specific perspective of evaluating where the district can readily develop additional biking opportunities on district-owned or other local properties.”
That framing is notable given the community conflict the study has already produced. After the board voted in February to commission the study, four of seven members of CPRD’s Chehalem Heritage Trail Citizens Advisory Committee resigned, citing the inclusion of Rilee Park in the study’s scope. At each CPRD board meeting since February, multiple public commenters from in- and out-of-district have provided comment to the board urging that mountain bikers be kept out of Rilee Park, primarily citing donor intent, safety, and nature preservation, according to Newsberg’s prior reporting.
A political action committee, the Friends of Chehalem Parks PAC, formed last month by Lake Oswego’s Toniya Villalobos, with the committee’s stated purpose reported in state filings as supporting “candidates and measures that Preserve Rilee Park.” Attorney Julie Parrish presented a proposed Rural Heritage Park ordinance at the May meeting that would effectively restrict Rilee Park to non-cycling uses.
The board voted 3-2 to table the ordinance until its June 25 meeting, pending review of the C2 study.
The 10 Sites Evaluated
As part of the report, C2 visited all 10 sites with CPRD staff in March 2026 to determine biking facility eligibility. In addition to Rilee Park and Ewing Young Park, the sites included Herbert Hoover Park, Friends Park, Schaad Park, the former Dundee Landing, the Brillas Property, the Wilsonville Road Property, the Highway 219 Property, and the former Newberg Landfill.
The report does not identify any of the other eight sites as near-term priorities. It does single out two for longer-range development.
The Highway 219 property is recommended for a comprehensive trail network with a trailhead near the entrance and trails accessible from a proposed river access point.
The former Newberg Landfill — a Yamhill County-owned, 38.75-acre waterfront property near Rogers Landing — is described as a potential destination-quality bike park that could serve both recreation and family-friendly tourism. Downing has explored the site’s potential, meeting with DEQ officials in May alongside two board directors.
The board has expressed interest in the property’s long-term possibilities but indicated the district lacks the capacity to develop it in the near term, given its current project commitments as well as environmental and safety concerns involved with building facilities on top of a landfill.
Who the Report Says Needs Access
The report draws on a 2025 CPRD community survey of 829 respondents and two public open house events, and identifies five mountain biker profiles it says represent district demand: kids and teens, families, NICA riders — participants in the National Interscholastic Cycling League, which offers structured mountain bike training and racing for students in grades 6 through 12 — enthusiasts, and destination visitors.
The report notes that nearly one-third of Newberg households include residents under 18, substantially higher than the statewide average of 20%, and points to cycling as the most popular outdoor physical activity for children and teenagers nationally. It also cites the Willamette Valley as having some of the highest mountain bike use per trail mile in Oregon, with the northern valley — where Newberg is located — identified as having the fewest trail miles per capita.
The 2025 community survey found that bicycling ranked second among respondents’ favorite household activities at 10.7%, behind hiking at 11.6%, with horseback riding and equestrian activities third at 9.4%. Qualitative survey responses showed what the report described as high levels of frustration among mountain bikers over the loss of trail access and what respondents characterized as a failure to replace that recreational option in a timely manner.
The full report is posted on the CPRD website. The CPRD Board of Directors is scheduled to meet June 25, when it will take up the tabled Rural Heritage Park ordinance proposed by the Friends of Chehalem Parks PAC.
Clarification June 8, 2026 at 10:17 a.m.: CPRD Director Matt Smith said that the vote in 2023 to ban mountain biking activities at Bob & Crystal Rilee Park was the results of hundreds of complaints and contentions leading up to the vote, and not a discussion that started in 2023. Newsberg has add clarifying language.
