Off-road riding complex to reopen in Utica? Project still needs full board approval

There once was a track for dirt bikes and off-road vehicles in rural Utica. Two developers want to reopen it – and manage it better than previous owners had.

On Tuesday, the Utica Planning Commission recommended that petitions, with assorted conditions, be granted to Gerhard and Patricia Ward, who hope to acquire almost 600 acres along the south side of 2803rd Road and turn the property into Fox Valley Off Road 2.0.

Tuesday’s votes only advanced a recommendation to the Utica Village Board, which has final say and could take up the matter Thursday.

Gerhard Ward said he had worked at the track years ago and “didn’t like how it was run.” He had no ownership stake then and no say in the operations.

Mindful of past nuisance complaints, Ward said dirt bikes today are less noisy and are increasingly electrically powered. An after-hours number will be available for neighbors to report unauthorized riders. The property will be enclosed, and riders will be warned: Drive off the complex and onto private property, and you will be banned for life.

Ward said that, weather permitting, the facility would be open from March to November for off-road riding – “almost exclusively dirt bikes” – and the parcel contains no arable land.

“There’s absolutely no farm ground at all,” Gerhard Ward said, adding later, “We have a 30-year agreement with the sand company that it cannot be mined again.”

According to the Wards’ petition, the property in question was established in the 1980s as an off-road riding park until it was sold to Unimin Corp. (now COVIA) in 2008. COVIA, according to the petition, is willing to exchange the property for parcels in Dayton Township.

(Actually, the Wards also propose using some of the land for a solar farm, but that matter will be settled later.)

Utica Fire Chief Ben Brown said he approached the Wards with a litany of questions and came away with a plan for how to reach the injured. There is a set landing zone. The complex will operate in daylight, when first responders are available. GPS technology will help emergency medical services find injured riders.

Public opinion was sharply divided.

Ben Wolfe of Poplar Grove said he has a law enforcement background and has found riding in a controlled environment is infinitely preferable to having riders run around in the wild. He also vouched for the Ward family.

“When they tell you they’re going to put a fence up, they’re going to put a fence up,” he said. “These are family-oriented people who will not set you up for failure because they’re not going to set themselves up for failure.”

Tom Keenan of Ottawa said he has ridden and has worked at other riding facilities, and the Ward family “sets the gold standard for how it should be done.”

Jim Blaydes of Peru said he is a longtime rider who called the Wards’ other facilities “a family environment, safe for kids.”

“What these people have done here is far superior to the riding parks in the area,” Blaydes said.

“How would you feel if this is coming to your backyard?” countered Roger Bauer, who lives near the proposed complex. “We’ve been taking a [heck] of a beating on our property values.”

Diane Gassman, another rural Utica resident, said there wasn’t much notification either by the Wards or the village.

“How long have you had this information? We just got it,” Gassman said, urging time for longer consideration and the imposition assorted conditions. She added later, “This seems like a done deal.”

Separately, a proposal to add camping spaces to a tavern at Utica’s south end was withdrawn. Benjamin Ruiz, owner of Ano del Gallo, at one point had sought the village’s OK to install “small lodging facilities” on 3.25 acres of unused space.

Finally, the Planning Commission approved a petition from Lucas and Kylie Mattioda to construct an accessory building, for pool use, at 2874 E. 752nd Road. Kylie Mattioda is a Utica village trustee and would have to recuse herself from any vote that comes up Thursday before the Utica Village Board.