Private ‘motor tracks’ fix urged

Motorcycle riders will get a chance to weed their own garden before Spokane County steps in.

The county Planning Commission decided Tuesday to ask friends and foes of private “motor tracks” in residential areas to propose regulations each side can support.

It’s the same approach that produced a beekeeping ordinance that will go to county commissioners next week.

“I really liked what happened with the beekeepers,” Chairwoman Joyce McNamee said.

Several commission members agreed that getting the interested parties to work together produced a better beekeeping ordinance than if county officials had imposed their ideas.

Commissioner Edward Neunherz said the same incentive may encourage motorcycle riders and their aggrieved neighbors to collaborate: the alternative is to “let the bureaucracy sort it out.”

The parties got a taste of that when planners proposed restrictions that limited private motorcycle and off-road vehicle tracks to two acres within 10-acre rural properties.

The draft ordinance was overwhelmingly criticized at a May 26 public hearing attended by more than 100 people. A show of hands indicated that many in the audience were members of the American Motorcycle Association.

Commissioner Jack Miller said he thought lack of organization may have caused critics of residential motorcycle courses to be “underrepresented.”

Miller said he felt government shouldn’t interfere with property rights, but some motorcyclists’ testimony “kind of changed my mind.”

“Their view of property rights is, ‘I have them and pretty much nobody else does,’ ” Miller said. “They don’t seem to realize that other people have rights.”

The proposed ordinance is “pretty heavy-handed” and “isn’t going to work,” but “there ought to be some kind of middle ground,” Miller said.

Commissioner Mike Cummings said he thought the proposed regulation sprang from two neighbors who weren’t talking to each other. He suggested tabling the issue indefinitely to “see if the riding community would take heed.”

Commissioner Peter Rayner said he was reluctant to restrict rights because of “one or two bad actors.” He was optimistic that education would help.

Rayner said he had problems with trespassing mountain bike riders building trails on his Beacon Hill land, but eliminated most of the problem by contacting bicycle shops.

Rayner and Cummings suggested people who are offended by persistent noise and dust from next-door motorcycle courses could sue their neighbors. Neunherz and Miller found that too difficult and expensive a solution.

The panel unanimously supported newly appointed Commissioner Alene Lindstrand’s motion to give the two sides a year to hammer out their own regulations with help from the county planning staff.

More civility will be required for the process to succeed, Neunherz said. “The level of intensity needs to be dialed down.”