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Committee reviews Heritage Trails usage, considers targeted fee options for mountain-bike users
Summary
Washington County staff reported year-to-date declines in Heritage Trails visitation and revenue compared with 2024 and the committee discussed possible targeted fee options — including a higher daily charge at Heritage Trails, a separate mountain-bike pass, or resident/nonresident differentials — to support trail building and maintenance.
Washington County staff presented a usage and revenue briefing for Heritage Trails and the committee discussed options for addressing lower-than-expected 2025 revenue, including targeted fee mechanisms for mountain-bike users.
Jamie Ludovic (chief community development officer) said staff prepared the report after noticing that park enterprise revenue and visitation in 2025 is tracking below 2024 across parks. Camera-collected exit counts at Heritage Trails year-to-date were down versus 2024; staff told the committee they are reviewing whether the decline is due to weather, broader economic conditions or changes in user behavior (for example conversion of some frequent visitors from daily passes to annual passes).
Jamie said Metro Mountain Bikers has provided extensive volunteer labor for trail construction and maintenance. Committee members discussed revenue levers: raising the daily carload fee at Heritage Trails, creating a separate mountain-bike pass (daily and/or annual), or differentiating Wisconsin plates versus out-of-state plates. Staff noted operational and equity trade-offs — for example, raising the Heritage Trails daily rate could disproportionately affect multi-use visitors — and said the county would prefer to develop any new fee structure in partnership with Metro.
Supervisor comments included support for exploring an earmarked revenue stream specifically for Heritage Trails trail building and maintenance, and a request that staff analyze out-of-state plate volumes at county parks to assess the potential yield of a resident/nonresident fee differential. Staff said they will continue analysis and meet with Metro Mountain Bikers and report back; no fee change or formal action was taken at Thursday’s meeting.
