by David Flint
“It’s been all fun.” That’s Lebanon Valley Speedway owner Howard Commander talking to a Times Union reporter on the occasion of his receiving a DIRTcar Hall of Fame award last month for his 50 years of dedication to the sport of racing.
But just before the “all fun” wrap-up, Commander made a comment that has gotten some folks pretty riled up. He said he had two things remaining on his bucket list, fixing the flooding on his land, “And on Sunday afternoon I want to see the drag track, motocross track and go-kart track running and being packed full of people.” [private](The motocross track?) The reporter added, apparently paraphrasing Commander, that, “He’s close. The flooding is 90 percent fixed and the motocross is just shy of completion.”
So what is this with the motocross track wondered some. Commander had plans for a motocross track on a site in Stephentown adjacent to the Speedway’s drag strip but narrowly lost a three-year battle attempting to get a use variance for the site that is zoned residential. Those left wondering about the comment included especially some 30 families in the vicinity that did not want more noise in addition to what they already had from the race track. These families are represented by the formidable Lewis B. Oliver, Jr., Esq. who persistently and doggedly led them in their battle before the Stephentown Zoning Board of Appeals, ending up with a final 3-2 vote in May 2013 denying the use variance.
Another group, which call themselves the Lebanon Valley Conservancy, and may or may not be essentially the same group, claims to have “fought Commander’s ambitions for years.” The Conservancy, which is also currently pressing for a more restrictive noise ordinance in New Lebanon, issued a press release with the headline “Speedway Brazenly Defies Court, Lawyer Says.”
Lawyer Oliver, did not use the term “brazenly” nor did he charge that Commander had “deliberately defied an injunction” as the Conservancy’s press release alleges. He was, however, sufficiently alarmed, or alarmed by his clients, to fire off a four-page letter to Commander’s attorney, Jason Shaw of the law firm Whiteman Osterman & Hanna.
Oliver noted that there has been a lot of tree cutting and filling and grading on the Stephentown site since August 2010 when the Rensselaer County Supreme Court issued an injunction to stop any work in furtherance of the motocross race course. He acknowledged that Commander had every right to log and level his property for use for agricultural or residential purposes. But just last April people working for Commander had allegedly used a backhoe to substantially widen a driveway onto the site from Webster Hill Road. Oliver said that numerous truckloads of gravel were brought in and spread on the driveway and this had raised his clients’ suspicions “that the logging and filling and grading was not for permissible agricultural or residential purpose but for a motocross race track.” Then they read in the Times Union that the Motocross is just shy of completion. The statement, Oliver said, would appear to indicate a “knowing and willful” violation of the injunction, and he threatened legal action for contempt of court.
Shaw in his response dismissed the notion that there might be any grounds for citing Commander for contempt of court. But he made no attempt to clarify what might have been meant by the motocross being just shy of completion. “We do not believe Mr. Commander’s statements require clarification,” he wrote.
So the questions remain; is Howard Commander building a motocross track – somewhere? anywhere? And what plans, if any, does he have for the Stephentown site? Commander is not saying – at least not at this time to this reporter.
If Commander were to request a change of zoning for the site, that is, a change in the zoning law as opposed to a use variance – probably not at all easy to get – that would almost certainly have to come before the Stephentown Town Board rather than the ZBA. Town Supervisor Larry Eckhardt said that Commander has not approached the Town Board with any request or proposal since his request for a use variance was denied.
So is Mr. Commander having fun and leaving his remark hanging out there just to tweak certain people and raise some blood pressures?
“It’s been all fun.” [/private]