BY J. E. NORDHOLT
North Mesa Resident and
Certified Mountain Bike Trail Designer

I was extremely disappointed in the recent decision by a unanimous County Council to approve a bike park on the ground of the North Mesa Meadow (NMM) east and south of North Mesa Park Rd. Prior agreements such as the one made by previous Councils to keep the NMM in a natural state must stand far ahead of ill conceived advice from consultants or staff who were perhaps unaware of the special protected status of the NMM. NMM should never have been considered for these facilities and there were always better locations available. Several excellent letters to the editors of our local papers have explained that special status and the broader importance of this open space to the people of North Mesa as well as better locations for these facilities. See for example one by Georgia Strickfaden https://ladailypost.com/letter-to-editor-north-mesa-park-master-plan-beware-adjacent-neighborhoods/ and one by former Councilor Jim Rickman https://losalamosreporter.com/2026/02/24/promises-credibility-north-mesa-open-space/.

The Council seemed to feel there was consensus around the NMM for a bike park and pavilion. I do not believe a real consensus was reached. How many people were really involved in the meetings on which the “consensus” was formed? Just because an outside organization was paid to hold some meetings does not mean it really represents the community’s needs and desires. Before any plan is enacted, a vote should be taken from the precincts that make up North Mesa to determine if there is a consensus among the people who will be most affected: the residents of North Mesa. This is not too much to ask before the NMM is destroyed because the undeveloped meadow was promised to the people of North Mesa after the Cerro Grande Fire. It is 26 years since that fire but the promises made didn’t have an expiration date. The Counselors seem to think that promises made by an earlier Council no longer apply or were erased by a few meetings. Before anyone celebrates the Council’s decision I would like to point out that if promises made by one Council do not apply to future Councils, then we cannot count on anything any council says. Government is built on the trust of the governed which cannot be sustained if officials do not respect previous norms. Perhaps the best outcome from this debacle would be that the pristine nature of the NMM be written into law, only to be disturbed if future temporary housing is needed after a disaster. Of course a future Council could change that but it would inform future planners of the NMM’s special status.

This decision was particularly egregious because there are many alternative locations that would not negatively impact the recreation of others. The west side of North Mesa Park Rd next to the dog park is an option that was rejected despite meeting all the requirements for the new facilities while not damaging a heavily used recreation area like the NMM. It is still an option for the pavilion should the bike park be placed elsewhere. There are still better locations for a bike park. First there is the old bike park next to the North Mesa tennis courts. It has sat unused for more than a decade. (It was apparently closed for safety reasons but before it closed I used it to develop my love of jumping my mountain bike and other users were extremely rare.) Also there is an area on Barranca Mesa near the intersection of Navajo Rd and Los Pueblos St that is designated as the Los Pueblos Bike Park. It appears to have been unused for an even longer period of time. Reinvigorating these two bike parks would allow for more flexibility to do things like make one for more advanced users than the other or provide nearby options for people on both mesas. These locations are available now and could be excellent projects for mountain biking clubs. Perhaps if built by potential users they would not be so quickly abandoned. It really is too much to ask the people of Los Alamos to keep supplying valuable open space to bike parks that quickly fall into disuse. A bike park in the NMM would produce blowing dust that would limit the use of the surrounding areas for other users, displace wildlife, violate promises made to North Mesa residents, and destroy a thriving and unique natural environment that has been lovingly cared for and heavily used by the people of North Mesa based on promises made by a previous Council.