Item 5A. Hyland Singletrack Trail Development Agreement
Superintendent's Recommendation:
MOTION TO APPROVE AN AGREEMENT WITH ONE TRACK MIND FOUNDATION TO DESIGN AND CONSTRUCT A SINGLETRACK TRAIL IN HYLAND-BUSH-ANDERSON LAKES PARK RESERVE.
Prepared By: Luke Skinner, Associate Superintendent - Facility Services, Maintenance and Natural Resource Management
Background:
The continued growth of mountain biking in Minnesota has led to an overwhelming interest in developing new singletrack trails, especially closer to the urban core. Local advocacy and interest of new mountain biking opportunities at Hyland Lake Park Reserve is at an all-time high. As the Park District took over management of a number of park reserve units from the City of Bloomington, the timing was right to explore what was possible. Staff spent a better part of 2025 evaluating the potential for new mountain bike trails within the Hyland-Bush-Anderson Lakes Park Reserve.
Considerations included natural resource impacts, impacts to other park users and to neighboring residents. From our review, staff concluded that a high-quality, destination mountain bike trail (~ 10 miles) can be developed.
In February, staff engaged with the public and neighbors through social media, open house events (Feb. 9-10) and direct mailings (neighbors of North Corridor) as well as established a Let’s Talk site set up to collect feedback. The public open house saw 113 people participate and we received more than 240 comments in total over an 8-week period (see attached).
The mountain bike community is enthusiastic about the trail project and provided many comments on their interest and trail type. We also heard from hikers, nature center users and neighbors expressing concern for potential impacts to their user experience, wildlife and adjacent neighbors. All the feedback received will be used to inform design of the trail in order to meet the stated goals of creating a high-quality trail system while protecting natural resources and minimizing impacts to other park users and the public.
The One Track Mind (OTM) Foundation, the Park District’s partner in the wildly successful development of the Monarch Singletrack at Carver Park Reserve, has agreed to partner with the Park District in the design and construction of this new trail system at Hyland. Staff have worked with OTM to develop a cooperative agreement, similar to past agreements for Monarch, which outline roles and responsibilities for each party.
The partnership includes a collaborative process for designing and developing the trail; OTM will fund the project, including design and construction. The Park District will oversee the process and ultimately manage and maintain the new trail system.
Once this agreement with OTM is approved, staff will initiate the next phase of trail planning which includes trail design (May - August). Planning would be completed in 2026.
Relationship to the System Plan:
The Request for Action supports the following goal(s) of the System Plan:
Goal 1: You Belong Here
Goal 2: Parks Matter
Goal 3: Lead by Example
Attachments:
TRPD OTM Agreement 03262026.pdf
Hyland Singletrack Trail Project - Public Feedback from Open House.pdf
Hyland Singletrack Trail Project - Lets Talk Survey Results.pdf
