ATV Florida Forum

Zoning was passed! There is a new 80 acre youth ATV and motor cycle track that is going to open in N. FL. just  above Live Oak, W. of Lake City. Zoning was passed after heated debates and public hearings. They plan to be open 7 days per week. $10 entrance fee, plus additional fee for race track use that will be timed usage. They are proposing monthly organized races. The owners hope to be open within 90 days.

I'll post more in the morning when I wake up.

Teej

If you can believe this, the zoning board voted 5-0 in favor of this track. This is supposed to be in the Fort Union area about 12 miles N. of Live Oak. It will be open to ATV's and dirt bikes. They plan to have a parking area, a camping area, office, ticket booth, rest rooms and a spectator area.  A William Golightly will be managing the business. His family owns the property.  10 acres will be for racing and 40 acres will be for open riding. Only 40 riders at a time will be allowed on the track with timed sessions.  The biggest complaint objection was of noise and Golightly told the board that ATV's will not exceed the 98 decibels in conjunction with current regulations. The board did restrict the business to operating durning daylight hours only. 8am-8pm Golightly was forced to make a good faith agreement that the noise level will be kept as promised in the original agreement.

FYI  Teej

The newspaper had a couple inaccuracies, but I'm happy that they atleast didn't put a negative spin on it which they very easily could have.

I told the board that all new offroad vehicles had to meet an EPA standard of 92db when they came off the factory line.  I also said that many of the racing organizations now have sound testing before your allowed to compete that is 98db. This includes the AMA and I beleive the FTR is starting soon with that also. When I was was asked point blank by one of the board members whether I would allow someone with a loud pipe in to just ride, I said yes. But, if after I've told the person with the loud pipe that they have the power to close the area because of the sound and they continue to come back time after time, I might ask them not to come back until they've changed their pipe out for something a little bit more accomodating. We're going to do other stuff like push up some dirt piles and plant some shrubs on top of them, the same kind the state uses along roadways to block sound. I mean seriously theres only like a dozen houses in a 2 mile radius of the property, and the sound I think will only be an issue within a 1/4. No one even lives that close.

The 40 rider thing is just for the track only. Thats about how many we expected to be racing at one time. During practice the # will probably be the same. Only if there is more then what we feel safe amount of people on the track at one time will we do the timed practices on non race days.


Other then that, I've had a cold ever since last weekend and am just starting to get over it or we would already be moving dirt. I hope we can meet the 90 days to open but its going to be tough. A whole lot of work to do inbetween now and then. I'll keep everyone updated with pictures and progress. Thanks for the interest.


Billy

Cool, good to see someones managed to open up a new area.