A racetrack in your backyard? Maybe not in NY...

[Michael Moore]

From the NY Times:

March 12, 2009
OUR TOWNS
Fight Over a Motorcycle Track Is Really About Class Warfare

By PETER APPLEBOME
TAGHKANIC, N.Y.

Remember way back, a year ago, when almost every day brought a new story of real estate excess and good old-fashioned neighborhood hate, like the tale of the Russian millionaire who raised the ire of his neighbors when he wanted to build something that was too much even for Greenwich circa 2008 â€" a 27,000-square-foot mansion with 26 toilets and room for 12 cars?

Up here in the rolling hills of Columbia County, they're finding that if you can't fight new wars, you can still fight old ones. So, almost three years after Alan Wilzig, heir to a banking fortune, began crowing about his plans for his Wilzig Racing Manor, complete with mile-long racetrack, the pitched battle goes on like an acid flashback from the days before blue-chip stocks sold for less than a latte.

In one corner is Mr. Wilzig, somewhat poorer and somewhat chastened, who now bills his $1 million racetrack as a trifling “recreational sporting course” that will be used both for his 60-plus motorcycles and for his kids' bicycling and skateboarding â€" though, since both are toddlers, that might have to wait.

In the other corner is a ferocious group of residents under the banner of the Granger Group, some living nearby, most others in the far-flung corners of the town. Their critics say they are far too exercised about Mr. Wilzig's plans to worry about getting facts right or impugning the reputation of people not 100 percent in the anti-Wilzig camp.

To be fair to the Grangers, Mr. Wilzig has given them plenty to fear. Living next to a motorcycle racetrack isn't really what most people move to the country for. Mr. Wilzig decided to build his racetrack (still unpaved) first and then make sure it was legal. When the town Zoning Board of Appeals turned him down, saying it was not considered a “customary accessory use” for his residence, and the courts upheld the board, he came back and applied for “club or recreational use” under the creaky 1972 zoning code.

“What really infuriated us is that the world is falling apart, psychologically, financially, every way possible, and this man is worried about his Ducatis and his racetrack,” said Ben Shecter, who lives in a lovely restored barn and silo across from Mr. Wilzig. “It is such indulgence, these billionaires, these Madoffs of the world, build these walls where they are just totally immune to what's going on.”

Mr. Shecter, who was using a few rhetorical flourishes, not accusing Mr. Wilzig of Madoff-like fraud, originally wrote to town officials supporting the track until he became convinced it was not for family use but something, probably commercial, that could draw people from around the world. But town officials say any commercial use would be clearly illegal.

Mr. Wilzig has spent more than $200,000 on sound berms and $100,000 on acoustic tests that he said found the intended use within legal noise levels. He has also agreed to limits on how many vehicles could use the track at any time and to never install lights.

AND while some residents fear the track will destroy property values and their quality of life, others say that Mr. Wilzig has been fair and responsive , and that the opponents have made up facts and paranoid fantasies willy-nilly.

“When I first heard about it, I wanted to kill Alan,” said Maurice Berger, a cultural historian who lives down the road from Mr. Shecter and sees a classic clash of property rights and community rights with potential for compromise on both sides. “But the only person who's been willing to be fair and dialogue about this has been Alan. There's this imperiousness, this hysteria on the other side from people willing to spread rumors, ruin reputations. It's the kind of imperiousness you find from a lot of affluent people, particularly weekenders from Manhattan, and Alan isn't the only affluent person out here.”

Which doesn't mean a racing track belongs in someone's yard. And if some critics are weekenders or remnants of the Manhattan diaspora, others are full-time, middle-class residents like Sali Wohlbach, a teacher who left a home near one racetrack in another town to find, to her horror, visions of another.

The Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a public hearing on the proposal next month. Opinion at a February hearing was decidedly negative. . Some critics are confident that the board will turn it down â€" that it's absurd to argue that the code ever contemplated a professional-level racetrack as a backyard recreational option. Its ruling could settle the issue. But don't bet on it.

[enzo]

I love it when rich people have spats.  May the most entitled NIMBY win.

[EvilSteve]

There's a lot of BS going on around this. I've been there. It's not a "professional level track", especially while it's not paved. I don't really see what the difference is between this and someone building a dirt bike track on their land and riding around with a few friends. Just because it's paved, doesn't mean that it's any better or worse than a dirtbike track. The sound complaints are crap as the article states and many of the people who are complaining about this are the very same people who cleared large parts of hill tops so that they could have a better view and then started voting in the council to stop others doing the same. The suggestion that people shouldn't be able to spend their money how they want is total crap too. For the record, I know Alan and have been to his property several times. Whatever his intended use of the track might have been, he's well aware of the law and intends to remain legal and, as the article said, has made much effort to meet the demands and address the concerns of the wider community.

Same author, further information: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907EFD61230F93BA35753C1A9609C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

[TiAvenger]

- deleted political comment.


I hope he wins.

[GLantern]

If it's for private use i don't see the big deal, I say more power to him!  I could imagine it being an issue if he was trying to rent it out but he clearly is not.  We all only wish we could have a mile long track in our backyard!!!!!!  God the tires i would go through!!!!!!!!

[Michael Moore]

Oh, I'm rooting for the guy too. If I could have a private track... sigh.

I just thought it was funny that "Ducatis" was tossed about like something a rich guy with no sense of the world's suffering would own.

There's a lot of BS going on around this. I've been there. It's not a "professional level track", especially while it's not paved. I don't really see what the difference is between this and someone building a dirt bike track on their land and riding around with a few friends. Just because it's paved, doesn't mean that it's any better or worse than a dirtbike track. The sound complaints are crap as the article states and many of the people who are complaining about this are the very same people who cleared large parts of hill tops so that they could have a better view and then started voting in the council to stop others doing the same. The suggestion that people shouldn't be able to spend their money how they want is total crap too. For the record, I know Alan and have been to his property several times. Whatever his intended use of the track might have been, he's well aware of the law and intends to remain legal and, as the article said, has made much effort to meet the demands and address the concerns of the wider community.

Same author, further information: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907EFD61230F93BA35753C1A9609C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

That was a good article.

It makes me think of all the folks who built their mansions next to Laguna Seca in Monterey, and then complain about the noise of the racetrack.  It's truly idiotic.

[DLSGAP]

For the record, I know Alan

Hmmm He wouldnt happen to be interested in partially (or fully) sponsoring an aspiring racer would he 

FWIW: I hope he gets the track. I've always wished I had the money to pull something like that off

[swampduc]

I hope he gets his track as well.

And FTR, who gives a good goddamn whether he's in touch with the "world's suffering"? Let him do what he wants with his own damn money! I haven't lost my job. I still work my ass off. But maybe I shouldn't buy another moto this summer because the world is suffering 

[Grampa]

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.roadracerx.com/db-images/dbimage782_300.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.roadracerx.com/article.php%3Farticle_id%3D159&usg=__BKCSDcaUalfAbfAr_tPOLi4_I8s=&h=208&w=300&sz=16&hl=en&start=4&um=1&tbnid=w8KeDYKWQ4ad3M:&tbnh=80&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3DWilzig%2BRacing%2BManor%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7ADBR_en%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

[Le Pirate]

It's his money. Let him spend it.

Won't that be helping the economy? That guys argument is total shit....


If he is within the law (noise limits, etc...) then by all means it's his land...he can build his track!





Alan....can I come over and play?  [moto]

[Statler]

While I find the sound of bikes pleasing, there are certainly people who don't.     I'm sure you guys can think of certain sounds that while perfectly legal, would drive you absolutely batty on a Sunday afternoon coming from your neighbor's place.

The 'how' in the story shows some pretty make the beast with two backsed up people, but the 'why' I can at least understand.

[DLSGAP]

After looking at the picture of his property, I don't see the sound being much of an issue. Its not like he's surrounded by neighbors. There's only one house near it.. the only other one in view form the ariel shot of the property... and I doubt that house is owned by the person raising all the fuss.

As the original article said. many of those against it are making up facts for their arguments and Alan Wilzig is the only one being  civilized in wanting to make sure its ok with everyone and being reasonable about it.


IMHO though... that track doesnt look like it would be very technical... needs a redesign before the pavers get there

[EvilSteve]

While I find the sound of bikes pleasing, there are certainly people who don't.     I'm sure you guys can think of certain sounds that while perfectly legal, would drive you absolutely batty on a Sunday afternoon coming from your neighbor's place.

The 'how' in the story shows some pretty make the beast with two backsed up people, but the 'why' I can at least understand.

Open pipes! But that is something you can hear, the point made in the article was that the noise wasn't the problem, it's the visual that most of the critics are complaining about but that's not a problem either. In fact, it's not even the visual, it's the principle of the issue. An ideological argument.

http://www.alanwilzig.com/

I feel like the core of this is around your rights not impinging on other people's rights. The argument around sound is moot because the track passes the sound tests. Visually it's not an issue because the track isn't visible to the neighbors and what right is impinged if you can see a track from several miles away on a hill? So what right is being taken away in Alan creating his track as long as he sticks to what's legal?

[DCXCV]

So Richard Skoda, the farmer just over the hill from Mr. Wilzig, figures if he can run his A.T.V.'s and snowmobiles and noisy tractors and combines on his land, Mr. Wilzig can run his cars and motorcycles the way he likes to on his.

''People like us who have been here forever have a big problem with people who move up from Westchester and Manhattan and immediately want to start telling people what they can and can't do with their property,'' he said. ''As soon as they get their little bit of heaven, they don't want anyone else to do a thing.''

Hmmm... the locals can handle it, the newbies can't.  Seems like an easy call??

[EvilSteve]

It would be but those guys aren't the people in the council, the definition of activist sort of sums it up.