Open Forum

We live just south of the proposed motocross site and have concerns about using that location. These concerns include the existing Crow Wing Township Comprehensive Plan, close proximity to the Crow Wing State Park, and the desire of local and future residents to remain in a residential area.

Crow Wing Township has had a Comprehensive Plan in place for years. This plan clearly promotes residential growth and discourages commercial industry.

The close proximity of Crow Wing State Park to the proposed site is also a major consideration. This park, founded in 1959, is visited by many including a multitude of local families. The Crow Wing State Park has been promoting family and youth activities since the very day it came into existence. It seems wrong to compromise that.

We are not anti-motorcycles or motocross tracks. Al has owned and ridden motorcycles all his life. The issue at hand is not whether people are in favor of a motocross track, but rather if the track should be placed here, in a residential area next to a state park camp ground.

CWC Commissioner Dewey Tautges, who appointed board member Kris Schubert, has chosen to speak in favor of the track using the issue of landowner rights. We are definitely in agreement with landowner rights, including our own. Placing the track in this area will seriously compromise our own rights as landowners. The decrease of our own property value is a great concern to us. We are in a rural residential area. The noise and dust pollution to us as nearby residents will be substantial and unacceptable. This site is open prairie. No barriers will contain the dust and noise.

Al and Sue Grattan

Brainerd

Emotional pleading

A request for a conditional use permit to operate a business on land zoned agricultural has come before the Crow Wing County Planning

Commission. A public hearing was held on Sept. 12 with many people giving testimony, many people that like to ride motorbikes and ride with their friends and family.

People came from out of town, places like St Cloud and from the Twin Cities to testify in favor of motocross racing. Do they have the best interests of the Brainerd Lakes community in mind? A common thread of the testimony from many of those people was, how much they enjoy riding/racing as a family activity as opposed to watching T.V.

Most often there was no factual evidence presented, no reason why a business should be allowed in an agricultural zone and no good reason why the present neighbors and community practices should be altered. The focus of the hearing was not intended to be about the merits of motocross racing, but about the land use zoning and orderly community development.

Citizens are free to comment respectfully at public hearings, but at this one, there was a lot of unrelated emotional pleading and not much understanding or concern about the regulations and effects of these activities in the community. Now the Planning Commission members must evaluate the zoning rules, goals of the community plan and the values represented therein. Under these guidelines, a motocross business and related activities do not belong at the proposed site.

Robert Morgan

Fort Ripley