The proposed concept plan for Sheboygan’s Evergreen Park has been met with serious opposition from the community.
The Evergreen Park Trail Assessment, dated spring of 2024, was prepared by IMBA Trail Solutions on behalf of the group Sheboygan County Cycling (SCC).
While on the surface it may sound like a plan to overhaul the park’s trails that are in need of attention, the trail assessment includes plans to turn the park into a mountain biking destination.
This assessment and concept plan went in front of the Sheboygan Common Council on March 3rd for approval and was met with strong opposition from community members and those in the Save Evergreen Park group.
This included Mike Scharinger and Rob Lyons, who spoke with SeehaferNews.com to voice their criticism of the plan for many reasons.
“The park, it’s equal access, equal use, balancing recreation with conservation and preservation,” Scharinger explained. “This plan really puts mountain biking-focused infrastructure into areas of the park that are, right now, they’re really just natural habitats.”
He also said, “The asphalt pump track, you couldn’t go any further away from balancing recreation and conservation and preservation than to put 18,000 square feet of asphalt on top of a green space. It’s converting Evergreen Park into a primary use of mountain biking at the expense of all other users and contrary to the history and vision of the park.”
This 18,000-square-foot slab of concrete he mentioned is just one of 46 fabricated features that SCC has proposed, straying off the path of their plan that has been entitled as a trail assessment.
Lyons also added how this would affect families going to Evergreen Park to enjoy nature, not jumps and embanked trails.
“On beautiful days, you’ll see parents bringing their children and they’re walking through the woods and they’re enjoying the wildlife,” he noted. “Once this type of a plan would be put in place, those experiences would pretty much be taken away.”
While standing in strong opposition to the proposed plan, both Scharinger and Lyons agree that the park has been neglected by the city and requires serious cleanup and some trail improvements.
However, Scharinger pointed out how this proposed plan does not fall in line with the park’s history of being an equal-use facility, citing SCC data showing, “about maybe 17 percent of park users are cycling or mountain biking related. So, it is a minority of the user groups of the park.”
If approved, this plan would turn Evergreen Park’s main focus to mountain biking while placing man-made structures in animal habitats and in very close proximity of hallmarks of the park, such as the Shaw Family Playground, which has been in place for decades.
At that March 3rd Common Council meeting, they agreed to defer the matter to this current session of the Council to make a final decision on whether the SCC plans get adopted.
Currently, it is uncertain when the plan will be discussed and voted upon.
