Agenda - Council - 03/23/1993 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CASE # REVIEW OF SNOWMOBILE ORDINANCE By: Michael Auspos, Police Chief Background: Following a complaint regarding snowmobiling on private property, Council directed Staff to schedule a public hearing to review the City's present Snowmobile Ordinance. That hearing has been scheduled for tonight and the Ordinance is enclosed for review. Observations: The present ordinance came about because of citizen complaints about snowmobiles driving onto private property, almost exclusively that meant property adjacent to the boulevards. Working with City Attorney Bill Goodrich, the Park and Recreation Commission and the local snowmobile club, we put together a collage of clauses from various Metro Area ordinances. In constructing this, we tried, I believe, to be reasonable and keep snowmobiling as a sport and entertainment in the City. I didn't believe then, and do not believe now, that violations are a major factor in the reason for calling this public hearing. We have a couple of problematic areas, such as River's Bend and Flintwood Hills for the most part, and it is likely that most of the complaints there stem from just a few young riders. To my knowledge there are only half a dozen or fewer persons who have been adamant about being much more restrictive and have been very vocal to the Council in that regard. This City is still largely open insofar as housing is concerned and, without a trail system in place, doesn't allow for persons to be able to get to open areas if the streets can't be used. I don't like to see citizens who may enjoy using their machines for legitimate family purposes be penalized by the actions of a few irresponsible operators. I have obtained information from several surrounding communities of similar geographies and demographics relating to their snowmobile regulations. From examining them, it appears that one change we could make would be to allow snowmobiles on the ROADWAY only. This means the main traveled portion of the street or highway. Now our ordinance allows them on the street which is defined as the entire fight-of-way. By restricting them to the roadway the boulevard/ditch question, at least for City streets, is resolved. By State law, they can ride in the ditch bottom or outside slopes of County Roads, County State-Aid Roads and State Trunk Highways. By making this change we could then remove the present MUSA boundary wording and map allowing snowmobiles on those streets also. The biggest problem before with those areas was the fact that they all have boulevards extending down to the roadway and didn't want the machines on their grass. We should also drop the age 16 requirement and simply allow State law to regulate that. Currently that law requires a safety certificate for persons age 14 to I7 to cross highways or streets. Under age 14, a person cannot be on a street or highway. Doing this won't increase the number of juvenile riders since it is more than likely that a goodly number of the kids now riding on the boulevards are under 16 anyway. In fact, it may be that some parents, once they understand that their "kids" can't fide anywhere but actually on the roadway, won't let "junior" out on the machine anymore. Without knowing exactly what the citizens who appear at the public hearing will have to say, it is hard to prepare answers for everything. Likely we will hear about damage to 57