A recreational trail area in northwest Santa Fe is among sites being considered for a major mountain biking event next year.

Local officials expect to learn Thursday whether the International Mountain Bicycling Association will pick Santa Fe for its biennial 2012 World Summit.

The city Convention and Visitors Bureau pitched the sports association this summer on hosting the event in Santa Fe. Sales director Christine Madden said Tuesday that she was notified about a month ago that the group's event committee was deciding between Santa Fe and Lake Tahoe, Nev.

A major feature in Santa Fe's proposal is La Tierra Trails in the city-owned Northwest Quadrant, which would offer miles of biking routes.

The City Council is scheduled to vote this week on adoption of a formal master plan for the 1,500-acre recreation area, which would call for improvements to the designated areas for hiking, biking, and equestrian and recreational-vehicle use.

Dozens of miles of trails already are in use on the property. Trails planner Leroy Pacheco said the document represents the evolution of an idea that has been a long time coming.

"As Santa Fe has grown, and as that area has been suburbanized, the city has been attempting to manage this for many, many decades," Pacheco said. "Little by little, we've done landownership and fencing. This master plan is a good launching pad for recognizing it for what it is: a 25-mile wilderness trail network already in the city."

In addition to laying out how the city will spend $2 million from a parks-improvement bond earmarked for La Tierra Trails in 2008, the master plan also will help the city better manage the area for public safety, he said.

"It's beyond the engineering and spending the capital money — it will now be the policy for all the users," Pacheco said.

The city's east side also features a wilderness trail network used by thousands of hikers and bikers each year. The Dale Ball Trails were developed over a period of several years and were formally dedicated as city-managed space in 2002. They connect to private lands owned by St. John's College and The Nature Conservancy.

La Tierra Trails also will connect to private lands, including housing subdivisions. Pacheco said priorities for development will be way-finding signs along the interior of the project, a trail connection between an underpass at N.M. 599 and the property, and a fenced-in, controlled area for all-terrain vehicles.

Other big projects coming soon include a 30-space parking lot near Unity Church and fencing along the entire property boundary.

Madden said area businesses and cycling groups got together to promote Santa Fe as the summit location and offered the International Mountain Bicycling Association a package worth $100,000 in products and support. Bicycle Technologies International, a bicycle-parts distributor based in Santa Fe, the local Fat Tire Society and REI, the sporting-goods retailer, are among those who offered to help.

"This would expose the Santa Fe area to more riders," said Chris Sheehan, board member for the 150-member local chapter of the Fat Tire Society. "We would expect chapters from all over the world."

The event could bring 1,200 room nights to city hotels and $1 million in sales revenues, and would be the kind of thing the Convention and Visitors Bureau is trying to attract to boost tourism. A recent report that called for realignment of the city's tourism and marketing division said not enough attention has been paid to the leisure travel market.

"If we become established as a trail-friendly and trail-excitement location, with the wisdom to preserve the authenticity and access of that experience, it will truly speak to a demographic that we as the tourism arm need to address," Madden said. "Those are our people."

The International Mountain Bicycling Association expects to announce the summit location at the Interbike International Bicycle Expo in Las Vegas, Nev., happening Wednesday through Friday. Its events manager did not immediately return a request for comment.

Previous World Summit events were held in Park City, Utah, and Augusta, Ga.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.