Future Smith Park mountain bike trail moves forward

The City of Brentwood has entered into an agreement with the Middle Tennessee Chapter of Southern Off Road Bicycle Association (SORBAMIDTN) to construct a mountain bike trail in Marcella Vivrette Smith Park.

The park was first identified as a potential space for a bike trail system in 2011, and in 2021, the city began discussing a public-private partnership which also included members of Bike Walk Brentwood and Citizens for Brentwood Green Space, which led to community meetings. 

“These good folks went out and hired a professional trail design firm, Rock Solid Trails, to develop the design standards and the alignment -- We walked the alignment with them, we agree that it’s a good plan,” Brentwood Assistant City Manager Jay Evans said during the commission meeting. “It is designed to not conflict with the pedestrian trails that are out there or really any of the other uses.”

According to the meeting agenda, the 18 month agreement allows SORBAMIDTN to construct the eastern section of the trail at its sole expense and following design guidelines approved by the city.

“The City is not obligated to expend funds for the construction of the eastern portion of the project,” the agenda reads. “Construction of the western portion will be city-funded, and $50,000 in placeholder funding was shown in the FY 2023-2028 Capital Improvements Program for that purpose. The total cost of the City's portion is not yet known, but is not expected to exceed $150,000.” 

The Commission unanimously approved both agenda items related to the project, and now the next steps for the project will be to have the commission review and approve a request for proposal as they search for a contractor for the project, which could happen as early as May.

There is currently no set timeline for when the trail, half of which will be completed by the city and half by SORBAMIDTN, is expected to be complete, but the goal is to have the approximately seven miles of trails completed at the same time.

"We broke this into two separate agreements because the first agreement we thought needed to outline in general terms the responsibilities and rights, if you will, of the two parties, SORBAMIDTN and the City of Brentwood, as we work together to try and have mountain bike trails constructed in Smith Park," Evans said.

“We would like to thank everyone for all of their support to make this possible,” BWB member Matt Robertson said in an email following the vote.