The Truesdale Board of Aldermen held a public hearing before their regular meeting on April 24 to provide citizens with the opportunity to comment on a proposed motocross track.
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The Truesdale Board of Aldermen held a public hearing before their regular meeting on April 24 to provide citizens with the opportunity to comment on a proposed motocross track. The track would be an expansion of the existing GG Sports Park, an ongoing project built by owner Dustin Loeffler.
The track would be built on the adjacent property to the paintball arena on Spoede Lane. Loeffler already owns the land and had brought his proposal to the board’s attention at a previous meeting on April 10 where they decided more public comment was needed.
Citizens spoke out against and in favor of the racetrack, with several speakers expressing both views. Many of them were residents of the nearby Heritage Hills subdivision and were concerned with the noise produced by the bikes and UTVs.
“You mentioned noise levels, that’s probably my main concern,” said Heritage Hills resident Gary Lively. “We already have two noise levels that we don’t have any control over with the trains and the highway.”
Loeffler has been working to address noise concerns, and stated that he plans to build a berm between the track and the nearby subdivision to help absorb and redirect the noise from bikes. He also plans to adhere to California standards for noise levels on bikes and will prohibit any vehicles that have exhaust noise exceeding 96 decibels.
There were also supporters of the racetrack stating it would be nice to have a location closer to home. The nearest public tracks currently are either north of Columbia or east of the Mississippi River, and having an option in Warren County would go a long way towards helping people safely practice the sport.
“We want to provide an opportunity for people to be able to ride within this land,” Loeffler said.
Loeffler has big plans for the facility on Veterans Memorial Parkway. While the paintball fields are largely completed, work continues on an indoor soccer complex, which Loeffler was optimistic would open soon.
He said the building will include 6,000 square feet of turf that could be used for youth soccer along with dividers that can be lowered from the ceiling to subdivide the field. He is also building party rooms for birthdays when the turf is not being used for soccer.
He anticipated that the facility would get consistent use and said that he had already been in contact with club soccer organizations. Later in the process he also intends to install batting cages that can be lowered from the ceiling as well.
Several community members also addressed what they felt were unfulfilled promises from Loeffler on previous projects. One contractor even claimed that Loeffler owed a significant amount of money to contractors in the area.
Nestled between the Gastorf Chevy dealership and the Heritage Hills subdivision the property is visible from the highway.
Loeffler has taken advantage of that visibility with a massive billboard directing travelers to the paintball fields. This visibility also drew the ire of some of the community members who spoke at the hearing.
A continuing theme was that, in its current state, the facility was unsightly. The parking lot is gravel and there is no landscaping. Many attendees felt it would go a long way with the community if Loeffler would work to clean up the parking lot and install some landscaping.
Most of the speakers were not explicitly against the construction of the racetrack but were concerned with what would happen if it was not completed to the specifications that were promised, as they felt the paintball fields were.
The hearing continued for roughly 45 minutes before aldermen closed the hearing. Since the city of Truesdale does not currently have a planning and zoning commission there are no permits that Loeffler has to obtain.
Since he has a business license in the city all he needs is approval from the board. After all of the comments during the hearing, both Loeffler and the board decided to hold off on a vote and consider what they had heard that evening.
“In my opinion, after all the information tonight, I think we can hold off until the next meeting,” Alderman Kari Hartley said.
