Commission backs ATV ban

WASILLA — On a 4-1 vote Tuesday the Wasilla Planning Commission decided to recommend the city council ban ATVs from city limits.

“I really understand the desire to be able to do what you want to do,” said planning commissioner Jessica Dean, but, “the cost of growth is this type of progress, unfortunately.”

Though a lot of people agreed with Dean, there were many who did not.

“My neighbors and friends and family and everyone else enjoy riding into city limits,” said Sarah Butts, who has been active in opposing the ban on Facebook. “If we start with city limits it’s going to be easy to spill over into everywhere else.”

Gary Ellis said that instead of passing new laws the city should just enforce the ones already there.

“This appears to be an enforcement problem, not an ATV problem,” he said.

A trails plan the city adopted in the ’90s actually restricts access to just a few streets. ATVs also have to drive 10 mph.

But, Mayor Verne Rupright testified to the commission, no matter what he’s tried he can’t seem to get it to sink in that those rules are in place. He pointed to very recent incidents where dirt bikes twice tore through the same newly hydroseeded lawn in the city.

“No matter what we’ve tried to do to bring it under control, unfortunately a lot of people say, ‘oh, I can ride in Wasilla,’ and they ride all over,” he said.

An across-the-board ban would make it much easier to understand: take your ATV outside of city limits or the police will take it away. He pointed out, as many did, that people will still be able to ride in the Mat-Su Borough, which has no plans to change its rules.

“If you want rules and regulations, move to a city. If you don’t, go to the Wild West, move to the borough,” he said.

A lot of people agreed with Rupright that it was time for a ban. Mike Strang lives at Mile 3.5, Knik-Goose Bay Road where he runs an auto shop.

“People around here have just go to grow up,” he said.

He told stories of ATV riders smashing through his property, driving into his trees.

“Why they are trying to drive onto my property on four-wheelers I don’t know but they’ll be staring at the business end of a 12-gauge when they do,” he said.

Others said they moved to Wasilla to live in a place that has regulations and the things that come with them.

Thomas Hannam, owner of Alaska Toy Rental, said that a lot of his customers take ATVs from his lot and ride them to trails in the area. A ban, he said, would take $300,000 right out of his pocket.

“They come here as tourists to drive a four-wheeler in the city,” he said.

Some urged the city to embrace ATVs, to build trails for them so that they don’t come into conflict with others.

Bernadette Rupright, Verne’s wife, sat on the city’s trails committee when it came up with the idea of restricting ATVs to certain routes. As she heard ideas like that, she remarked, “You want to see a meeting packed? Try putting an ATV trail in behind someone’s house. We tried.”

Planning commissioner Loren Means was the lone vote in opposition to the ban. He said that he believes in freedom in Wasilla.

“I think we’re making a rash decision that’s not well-thought-out because we don’t’ have the will to take a harder look at it,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.