Please see article below. We have received an overwhelming amount of support from our local community. The county has received so many calls that they came out yesterday and are now possibly ready to work with us. We would encourage anyone interested in keeping another mx track from being closed down to contact Shasta County Planning Department and or the record searchlight. We appreciate any and all support you could send our way.
Thanks so much,
Kevin- owner Coyote Ridge MX Park
"Bike park faces permit hurdle
Shasta County says track is operating illegally"
By Ryan Sabalow, Record Searchlight
February 28, 2006
KESWICK -- Although the Coyote Ridge Motocross Park has been open about a year, it's operating without a use permit -- a business that Shasta County planners say is illegal.
Despite that missing permit, the park's owners have expanded the network of jumps and trails on the 124-acre property to make it one of the premier dirt bike tracks in the north state.
The park's owners and managers admit they haven't applied for a county use permit, and Heidi Manning, the park's manager, said the park is in danger of being shut down.
Although county officials have given the park nearly a year to obtain a use permit, Manning said there's no point in applying for one because county officials have said they won't back it.
"If we submitted an application for a use permit, it would be a waste of $2,000," she said. "They wouldn't support it."
Zach Bonnin, Shasta County senior planner, said that's not the case.
Although Bonnin said the park has been cited for operating a motocross track without a permit and officials are "pursuing enforcement," that doesn't mean Coyote Ridge couldn't become a legal track with the proper permits.
"Could it be done" Bonnin said. "Yes, but it's going to take time and money."
Close to 7,500 riders have flocked to the park, located near the end of Iron Mountain Road, since it opened last March. As its popularity grows, more new riders arrive nearly every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday that it's open.
Coyote Ridge has a Web site. It's hosted a race. And it has a loyal following of local riders who pay $15 for a day on the track's jumps and curves.
"We've probably been coming here three days a week since it opened," said Dan Solis, a 48-year-old Redding resident, at Coyote Ridge Friday with his 11-year-old son, Dillon. "We really enjoy it."
It may be popular, county officials said, but it's still illegal and has been since Jenie and Kevin White bought the place.
Bonnin said the park is located on land that is not zoned for a motorcycle park, even though there are no homes nearby and it borders the Bureau of Land Management Chappie-Shasta Off Highway Vehicle area north of Keswick.
He said the owners probably would have to apply for a pricey special-use permit or relocate to an industrial area, which would be zoned to allow motocross tracks, he said.
The Whites say they don't have the money, and moving to an industrial area would defeat the purpose of a motocross racetrack -- a sport they contend is best pursued in the wilderness.
Bonnin said the park's previous owner, Robert Ford, started the pre-permit process for a motocross track. The response Ford got back in January 2004 -- just three months before he sold the property -- was not particularly glowing.
In a letter, county officials said Ford would have to address zoning ordinance, fire, traffic impact, noise, natural resources, archeology and air-quality concerns. BLM officials also attached a letter to the report saying that portions of Ford's track trespassed on federal lands.
Jenie White, 31, said she and her husband didn't know the details when they bought the property and began expanding on Ford's track.
White said they never assumed that one of the restrictions in the county report would be to improve Iron Mountain Road -- a project that would cost thousands.
She admits it was naive of the couple to assume that their more than $700,000 purchase came with no strings attached.
"We realize we should have checked into this before we got into a high-risk loan," she said. But it's been a dream of the couple to own their own park.
"We've put everything -- our whole life savings -- into this," she said.
The couple's hard work and investment have paid off, becoming a successful, growing business in spite of the permit hurdle.
On Friday, several local riders like Solis came to the park in hopes they could tell the Record Searchlight how important the track was to them and how unfair it was that the track was in danger of being shut down.
Solis said the park is one of the few supervised motocross tracks in Northern California, and its out-of-town visitors flood the area with much-needed cash.
"If they're going to shut this down, they need to provide some other place for us to ride," Solis said. "It's all we got around here."
Reporter Ryan Sabalow can be reached at 225-8344 or at
rsabalow@redding.com.
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