Hernando: Residents growl about track

Residents growl about track

By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK

RIDGE MANOR WEST -- About a mile north of State Road 50 just west of Interstate 75, down a narrow lime rock and dirt path called Remington Road, stands a dormant mining pit imprinted with motorcycle tire tracks.

Randy Yoho, who owns the 25.7-acre tract abutting the Withlacoochee State Forest, considers the spot perfect for a motocross track and training ground. People already ride there, he said, and it is next to the popular Croom Motorcycle Recreation Area.

"Where in the heck else would you put a motorcycle facility except next to another motorcycle facility?" Yoho said.

Not in our back yard, responded Lisa Golinello, who has collected about 100 signatures from people who live in the residential area just west of the site.

"As a community, we have a bazillion reasons for opposing it," Golinello said, citing noise and traffic among them. "I'm extraordinarily concerned and will do anything within the law to stop this from happening."

Her first stop will be the Hernando County Planning and Zoning Commission, which will hear Yoho's request to rezone the land from mining to recreational use this month.

The county Planning Department is recommending against the project.

As proposed, the track appears too intense a use for the surrounding area, chief planner Jerry Greif said. Also, the roadways leading to the site -- Remington Road, High Corner Road and Wildlife Lane -- are residential and therefore unsuited to the type of traffic that motorcycle races would generate for "activities of uncontrolled duration, time and number," he said.

Races would feature 40 to 200 riders, Yoho said, and as many as 500 spectators.

Greif acknowledged the racing that goes on in the nearby Croom.

"But it's over a large area and the access is off State Road 50," he said. "This is a smaller, concentrated area."

What's more, planning director Larry Jennings said, Croom closes when the sun goes down, while the track would require lighting for nighttime events, adding to its incompatibility.

"On first blush, you might think it's a good site," Greif said. "But when we weighed it all out, we decided it wasn't."

Yoho said he saw no real reason to deny the request. The property abuts the state forest on two sides and is just north of an old motorcycle track, he said. Several people ride on his land now, he said.

"I don't see it being that big of a problem," Yoho said.

To deal with potential noise, he said, he planned to build dikes around the property and has bought 10 acres to buffer the actual track area from the road and residential area. Yoho, who owns the Dade City motorcycle racetrack at the Pasco County Fairgrounds, also volunteered to reduce the track's planned operating hours to ease neighbors' fears.

He simply wants to get the facility open so Hernando County residents will have a place to learn motorcycle safety and race. The federal government requires such training, he said.

"There's nowhere in Hernando County that has a training facility to teach people after you buy these (motorcycles), but we have an off-road vehicle park that allows (riding) and dealerships that sell them," Yoho said. "It's not right."

Neither is it right to impose such a business on people who bought homes in a quiet area on the edges of a state forest, said Ellis Faught Jr., who lives about 700 feet from the property in question. Faught, a criminal defense lawyer, has successfully challenged an attempt to bring a landfill to another site near his neighborhood.

"Obviously Mr. Yoho is an absentee owner," Faught said. "He probably would not want that in his back yard."

Faught argued that a motocross track would be a commercial venture and that businesses do not belong in the residential, agricultural and recreational community. He pledged to do "whatever is necessary" to stop the project.

Golinello, who is working with Faught, called the community's concerns "pretty obvious." More than 50 children and 200 horses use the roads that would lead to the track, she said, and the added traffic going to the track would put them in danger.

She also worried about road maintenance and noise pollution.

"I have a 3-year-old and an 8-year-old," Golinello said. "How am I supposed to put them to sleep at night with a motorcycle race going on down the street?"

The track tentatively would be open until 10 p.m. weekdays and 11 p.m. weekends but operate only three nights a week.

The Planning and Zoning Commission is expected to weigh in Aug. 14.