Bylaw cuts the throttle at Vemp

Despite the best efforts of city councillors and an admission by the city’s lawyer that he’d like to try the track himself, the owner of a motocross track in Hanmer is being forced to close.

“The law is the law is the law,” said Jamie Canapini, at a meeting of the hearing committee on May 23. “You cannot license an illegal activity.”

That activity is the Valley Valley East Motocross Park – the Vemp, as it’s known, which has operated since before amalgamation in the 1990s. Last year, the city issued the facility a permit to allow the Vemp to hold official races, a permit that was supposed to expire in December.

But when a neighbour on Gravel Drive in Hanmer called to complain about the noise, the bylaw officer checked with the city’s planning department, which told her that the permit was issued in error because the zoning prohibited racing of any kind.

That includes training and practices, staff said, activity that has been going on at the Vemp for years.

“A race track is not permitted in this zone,” Darlene Barker, the city’s manager of compliance and enforcement, said.

Barker said the track’s owner, Serge Solomon, applied for a rezoning in 2009 that would have allowed racing on the property. However, the application is still incomplete because it doesn’t have a noise study.

Solomon told the committee that he paid a local company that has done work for the city in the past $1,000 to do a noise study, but it was rejected because it didn’t meet provincial standards. The cost of doing one that would meet provincial standards is at least $15,000, Solomon said.

“And I don’t have that kind of money,” he said.

Solomon said he is frustrated because he did everything that was asked of him since he received the permit to operate last year. The legal opinion his father received when he bought the land, as well as the opinion of city staff when he got the permit, was racing was OK as a non-conforming use of the land.

In other words, the land was thought – incorrectly - to permit racing under a special permit, even though it’s zoned as agricultural. That’s why the permit to operate was issued.

“We followed all the procedures,” Solomon said.

Ward 2 Coun. Jacques Barbeau asked him if he could find a way to pay for the noise study if the committee agreed to allow him to finish the year. It would take him three to five years to raise enough money for the study, he replied.

But Canapini said, as much as everyone would like to help him, the city can’t break its own rules. The land would have to be rezoned before racing could be permitted.

“We’re caught in a dilemma of the law here,” he said. “I take no great pleasure in providing this opinion. I’d love to try the track out myself, actually.

But the bylaw speaks for itself. And it’s my job to ensure that the bylaws are followed.”

Ward 1 Coun. Joe Cimino, who chairs the hearing committee, asked whether a special occasion permit, similar to ones given to midways that set up on mall parking lots, could be a temporary solution, but Canapini said midways are allowed under the zoning for malls, unlike the land where the Vemp is located.

Not everyone was in favour of allowing the park. Matt Miron, who grew up on Gravel Drive near the park, said noise has been a problem for years in the neighbourhood. He presented a petition he said was signed by most neighbours in the area opposed to allowing the park to continue because of the noise.

“Unless you live there, you can’t really understand,” Miron said. “Try eating dinner when there’s that kind of noise.”

Miron played the committee a video he said was taken from his house in which noise from the bikes at the Vemp could easily be heard.

“It’s ridiculous to consider giving him another three to five years,” Miron said.

However, he was told the committee was not dealing with the validity of noise complaints, but rather the legality of the park itself.

Solomon’s family has invested about $140,000 into developing the park. He said the two races he planned to hold would generate about $200,000 for the community.

“I’m here fighting for myself and a couple hundred people” who use the park or come to watch the practices and races, he said.

While he sympathized with Solomon, Barbeau said the committee’s hands were tied.

“This is a calamity of errors,” he said. “I would love nothing more than to uphold (the permit) until the end of the year.”

Ward 10 Coun. Frances Caldarelli urged Solomon to find ways to fund the noise study and move forward with his zoning application.

After the meeting, Solomon said he was going to look at ways of doing that, by soliciting more donations by people who use the park, and possibly through holding fundraising events. And, while staff said he could be charged with breaking the bylaw by even allowing practising to continue, Solomon said he wasn’t sure what he would do and would likely take a week or two to consider his options.

“It’s up to me, and I haven’t decided.”

Posted by Arron Pickard