City Council members voted Tuesday to approve a resolution that would commit $1.6 million to the U.S. Forest Service’s Mad Rabbit trail project.

The plan for the Mad Rabbit trails area, which encompasses Forest Service land in the Rabbit Ears Pass area to the south and the Mad Creek area to the north, has been in the works since 2017.

At that time, City Council members signed a letter of support for the effort to develop legal recreational trails and encourage the Forest Service to tackle illegal trail building.

The trails City Council has committed to funding would be built as part of the Forest Service’s wider Mad Rabbit trails project, which aims to construct 49 miles of non-motorized, motorized and adaptive routes and rehabilitate roughly 36 miles of unofficial trails that currently exist in the area.

The plan would also add restrictions designed to limit bikes to designated trails, improve winter trailheads to accommodate summer use, and add seasonal human-entry restrictions in certain areas to protect local elk populations.

Only one official Forest Service trail exists currently in the area — a section of the Continental Divide Trail — but the existence of winter trail signs and trailheads attracts visitors in the summertime to use the same trail systems.

The funding resolution approved Tuesday will require council members to vote on an ordinance approving the decision, which will likely take place in early 2025.

Council members voted 5-2 on Tuesday evening to approve the resolution. Council members Joella West, Dakotah McGinlay, Amy Dickson, Steve Muntean and Michael Buccino voted in favor.

The president of Routt County Riders, Craig Frithsen, applauded council’s decision.

“We were really happy to see it, we were glad and appreciative of City Council to recognize the support for the trail project and to approve the funding,” said Frithsen. “Routt County Riders is confident that we will be able to ensure funding to assure the project is seen through to completion.”

Council President Gail Garey and council member Brian Swintek voted against the funding resolution.

“I won’t be supporting this, times have changed, it’s 10 years later,” Swintek said of the long-discussed proposal. “I don’t understand why we are spending money outside of city limits on trails for mountain biking only when there is a lot of other recreating.”

Garey said Wednesday that she voted against the measure, not because she didn’t want the city funding to support the Mad Rabbit Rabbit trail project, but because she hoped there might be further discussion to identify trail projects in the city that might also benefit from some of the funding. “Whether it’s Bear River Park or the loop around Strawberry Park — let’s also put some of the money back into our connector trails,” she said.

“Not everybody has the luxury of driving up to Rabbit Ears Pass, so we certainly want to make it an opportunity for anybody who wants to get out and enjoy the trails in our community to have that access too,” Garey added.