Wellington committee recommends 2025 equestrian-trail master plan update; flags Fiftieth Street mapping and budget questions

The Village of Wellington Equestrian Preserve Committee recommended approval of the 2025 Equestrian Trail Circulation Master Plan to the Wellington Council at its April 2 meeting, voting unanimously to forward Resolution R2025-14 as amended. Committee members asked staff to clarify several budget figures, to change a listed culvert/crossing location from Sixtieth Street to Fiftieth Street, and to gather traffic and trail-usage data before advancing capital work for a Fiftieth Street crossing.

Planner Christian Santa Gonzalez presented the master-plan update and a revised project table that moved the Pink Trail fencing project to fiscal year 2025–26 and a culvert crossing to 2027–28. Public Works staff described ongoing and planned maintenance, saying the department typically receives $55,000 a year for major maintenance and about $70,000 for operating supplies; turf-rake attachments and some other equipment have already been purchased.

Staff listed planned 2025–27 capital-program spending in the draft plan and budget exhibits shown to the committee as roughly $900,000 in the first program year, $1,350,000 in the second and $700,000 in the third year. Committee members asked how that capital spending aligned with recurring maintenance totals listed elsewhere in the packet; staff said they would reconcile a discrepancy between a $235,000 figure that appears in the master-plan document and the department’s internal $199,000 (and separate $70,055) maintenance figures.

Public comment focused on a dirt segment of Fiftieth Street South between Owsley and Flying Cow that appears on the village’s equestrian-trail map. Resident Carolina Curtis said the unpaved portion is heavily used by riders and is unsafe because it mixes horses, vehicles and bicycles. She asked whether that segment is included in routine trail maintenance and whether a dedicated bridle-path project is planned there.

Public Works staff said the unpaved roadway is regraded on a regular schedule (noting typical workdays as Mondays and Thursdays) but that there was no capital project to separate horse traffic and vehicles at this time. Staff and the committee discussed changing the map designation for some “inaccessible” trail segments to “future trail” to avoid implying that an on-the-ground, maintained bridle trail exists.

Committee members asked staff to gather counts of horseback and vehicle traffic on the Fiftieth Street corridor next season and to move the previously listed Sixtieth Street culvert crossing entry in the plan to Fiftieth Street; they also conditioned support for the budget recommendation on staff providing clearer, reconciled maintenance numbers.

Committee Chair Jonathan Fleischer said a planning application related to a manure-handling facility had been filed online the prior Friday and that the application is publicly available; staff said the village would route any application through normal planning steps and present it to this committee when ready, likely in the fall if scheduling and applicant completeness permit.

After discussion, a motion to recommend adoption of the 2025 Equestrian Trail Circulation Master Plan (Resolution R2025-14), as amended to correct the crossing location, passed unanimously.