by David Flint
A public hearing on Howard Commander’s proposed motocross project drew a good-sized crowd of over 60 people to the Stephentown Town Hall on Thursday, January 5. The Zoning Board of Appeals, chaired by Roland Barth and comprising also Joseph Champion, Peter Ellard and Richard Sime, with Freling Smith absent, listened to arguments pro and con prior to opening SEQR proceedings. The SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) process will determine the environmental impacts of the motocross track that Commander proposes for a field off of Webster Hill Road in the southwest corner of the town.
[private]Judging from the applause for some of the comments, about half the crowd (including a number of young dirt bike riders who have attended most of the previous meetings) appeared to be enthusiastically in favor of the motocross park and about half decidedly in opposition to it. More of those in opposition, however, felt compelled to get up and speak their piece. Twenty-two people spoke against the project, and eight spoke in support of it.
The biggest concern of the opponents is the additional noise expected in the neighborhood. Howard Commander’s Lebanon Valley Raceway and Drag Strip are located nearby, just across the town line in New Lebanon, but residents say that while they must put up with that noise on Friday through Sunday, along with additional special events, they are not about to accept, if they can help it, more racing, even closer to their homes, on Sundays and Tuesday nights. Some claim, too, that the motocross dirt bikes make a higher pitched and more annoying sound than the race cars do. A noise study that was done, they say, was totally inadequate, especially since it did not take into account the added Tuesday night noise impact.
Other concerns included pollution of wetlands and the Kinderhook Creek, effect on property values, traffic and safety problems, air pollution and infringement of the access road on a neighboring property with no area variance applied for. Opponents emphasized that a zoning variance amounts to the Zoning Board overturning existing law and, according to the Stephentown Land Use Regulations, can only be granted if it, “will not be injurious to the neighborhood or change its character and will not be otherwise detrimental to the public welfare or the environment.” They rejected arguments from proponents who claim that motocross provides an activity for kids who otherwise have nothing to do, saying there are plenty of other activities available in the area for children.
Those who spoke up for motocross said it provides a safe family activity. These families know where their kids are. Motocross meets are clean and safe; it provides employment, tax revenue, spending in town from outsiders, develops physical, automotive and mechanical skills, the ability to interact with adults and to work with equipment. In response to fears of property value decline, one said he knew of families who had looked for and bought property with the main object of being close to a motocross track. Some expressed exasperation that the process of getting a variance could take so long. What could be the problem, one wondered, with putting in a motocross track next to an existing race track? “It’s not Loudonville here,” he said.
Gina Goodermote said the noise would just be incorporated into the drag strip noise but the track would provide employment and activities for kids who have little to do now. Kids involved in motocross must go out of Town now to practice and race. The people complaining, she said, bought their homes knowing that a race track was in the neighborhood. David Goodermote affirmed that the race track has been in operation for over 50 years. He noted that Beacon Power had been allowed to build its plant in a residential neighborhood and was now bankrupt and paying no taxes. Howard Commander, who pays taxes, has met every obligation given him by the ZBA, Goodermote said, and now the Board should stop spending taxpayers’ money and grant him his permit or deny it and let him move on. “It’s been over a year ago now I stood in this same place, and I’m still hearing the same crap tonight as I heard then,” he concluded.
Mark Keefe, an event promoter, referred to the dirt bike kids attending the meeting saying how well-behaved and respectful they had been at these meetings for over a year. He noted that Rensselaer County is the 30th highest taxed county in the nation and observed that there have been no other projects for development of any kind brought before the Stephentown ZBA recently. With this project, he said, the majority of Stephentown residents would benefit from an activity provided for the kids, from jobs and taxes and from recognition as the home of “Stephentown motocross.”
Lewis Oliver, the attorney for the opposing neighbors, introduced three experts to bolster his case that the application for a use variance is not yet complete.
Mark Bagdon of Novus Engineering in Delmar, contracted as an acoustical consultant, presented a report in which he determined that the noise study did not measure ambient noise when the drag strip is not running, which would be the case on Tuesday nights. Also the motocross course had been moved on the site plan since the noise study was done. In addition to that he questioned the adequacy of the method used to estimate the actual noise that would be produced under motocross race conditions, the estimation of noise reduction from earth berms and the failure to account for noise from other sources such as vehicle traffic.
John Serth Jr., a consulting engineer from Clifton Park, was asked to review the application regarding traffic and parking. Serth said he was able to park 245 imaginary Ford Mustangs in the spaces allotted on the site plan for 245 cars but it left no space for trailers or for getting the cars in and out. He concluded that vehicles might have to pass through the area delineated as wetlands or the 100 foot buffer zone for the wetlands. And how would vehicles with trailers be parked? Would they be turned around in the wetlands? He also had concerns about the proposed 11½ foot wide access road. Would it be widened to accommodate emergency vehicles and two way traffic? In that case, would the Town’s 25 foot setback be enforced? If the driveway is widened, the Department of Environmental Conservation would surely take a renewed interest because of the adjacent wetlands. Serth had additional concerns about increased traffic on Webster Hill Road, ingress and egress from Webster Hill Road and the angle of the intersection with Route 20 with many of the vehicles pulling trailers.
Michael Roland, a registered Landscape Architect and former Councilman from the Town of Nassau, concluded in his report that since the site plan and related documents do not contain enough detailed information in many of its aspects for the Board to adequately evaluate the application, the Board should reject it as incomplete. Roland also argued regarding the possibility of the project changing the character of the community that, “The prior existence of the Lebanon Valley Speedway should not serve as an excuse to allow additional noise and erosion of the quality of life of the many surrounding residents. The planned Tuesday racing would introduce an additional day of noise impacts to the community not now experienced…To impose additional noise on Sunday – traditionally a day of peace and rest from the world’s intrusions – would represent a further assault on the surrounding residents and erosion of community character.”
Pat Prendergast, Commander’s engineer, defended the adequacy of the noise study and showed a video taken when it was done. He was backed up by a consulting engineer on noise, Thomas Baird who agreed, however, that it did not measure ambient noise on Tuesdays since at the time of the study track operation on that day was not definite but only a possibility. “We need to look at that,” he said. Prendergast also defended his analysis of parking and affirmed that, “We won’t drive through the wetlands.”
Francis Roche, Commander’s attorney, dismissed the reports of Oliver’s “experts” as the typical thing one sees at Zoning Board meetings with experts disagreeing. He noted that the Code Enforcement Officer had given his opinion regarding the access road that no variance was needed other than the use variance.
Sean Sermini, a promoter of motocross events and Commander’s partner in this project, has been quiet throughout most of these ZBA meetings which started in May of 2010. But now he vented some exasperation with the long, dragged out process. After spending about $150,000 already on the project, he understood the necessity to meet all the regulations. “That’s the American way.” But he did not want to listen to opinions that the application was not complete. He wanted facts only. He noted he had early on brought to the Board a sound study done for the American Motorcycle Association that has been used at every AMA sanctioned track in the nation, but that was not good enough for Oliver. So they had done their own legitimate sound study, and it is still not good enough. They had, he said, done everything they had been asked to do to complete the application and “then they ask for something else.” He said for every question asked it cost them two to twelve thousand dollars each time. “We keep smiling, and we keep coming back, but it’s never good enough…The application could never be complete if it’s up to Mr. Oliver and his experts.”
Sermini said it’s a good class of people that participate in motocross events – serious, clean, well behaved, well-spoken and professional. The events would have a positive effect on participants and on people in the area that need jobs. There would be full time jobs and many part time jobs. The community in this economy needs help, he said, and his team was offering it in a good, positive way. “It’s now time to move forward and vote and let us move on…We are far too into it to do other than go forward…It’s too late to turn back.” Mentioning that he had spent all his money and lost his family over this, he hoped to be permitted to succeed here and “get his family back.”
It being past 10 pm by the time everyone had a chance to speak, Roche suggested that it was too late for the Board to continue on to the SEQR process, and he requested an adjournment. The Board agreed and set a special meeting for Tuesday, January 17, at 7 pm.[/private]