New regulations may be coming to off-road parks in Alabama, some oppose new legislation
ALABAMA (WHNT) — Stricter laws may be on the way for off-road parks in Alabama.
These areas provide trails for drivers of ATVs and off-road vehicles, but after complaints, some legislators are pushing for costly new regulations.
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The original bill’s sponsor, Sen. Andrew Jones, represents a small community in Cherokee County, home to one of the state’s off-road parks. Matt Townson and his family live a few miles away from the park, and he said they can hear late-night trail riding.
“It’s riding pretty much 24 hours a day,” Townson said. “Really what a lot of this started was with noise and with problems with our creek and water.”
After finding dirt in their water, Townson said some of his neighbors who live next to the park have had to install filtration systems in their homes, and they assume the issues are the result of runoff from the park and its trails.
Townson and others in his community have gone to their county’s leaders, hoping for a local solution, but he said they are still dealing with the noise and damage to their property.
“Obviously, this bill does not address near everything we would like it to address, but it’s a start,” Townson said.
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The Alabama Legislature has introduced a bill in the House and Senate that would, for the first time, require park operators to obtain permits from the state and special liability insurance. The $5 million insurance coverage would not just apply to the park’s land, but also to neighboring properties.
“The cost of that would be more than most private off-road parks probably clear in a year,” said Mike Morrison, the Southern Four Wheel Drive Association Director of Education.
Morrison said this type of legislation would put parks out of business. He said the bills also seek to put in place trail regulations.
Alabama is not the first state to try to regulate how off-road trails are built, but Morrison said this legislation would also take the fun out of driving the trails. He said it is clear state legislators did not consult anyone with trial-building experience when writing these bills.
“We say the off-road industry has a black eye because if you go search ‘off-roading’ on YouTube or anything like that, the first thing you see is a high horsepower buggy or a side-by-side or something that’s flying up the side of a mountain,” Morrison said. “When in reality, it’s nothing like that.”
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Morrison said the Southern Four Wheel Drive Association spends time teaching drivers how to off-road properly.
The Rocket City Wranglers, a Huntsville-based Jeep organization, have more than 6,000 members. Many are avid off-roaders.
“We really enjoy finding places to test not only our limits but our vehicles’ limits as well, and we want to do so in a safe and legal way,” said Chad Overcast, a member of the leadership team in the Rocket City Wranglers.
Overcast said the organization is committed to taking care of the parks, engaging in trail cleanups and conservation projects.
“Rocket City Wranglers adheres to a tread lightly culture,” Overcast said. “We’re very aware of potential environmental impacts that driving vehicles off-road can have, the impacts to the environment whenever you make drastic changes to the land in order to build an off-road park. We’re aware of those concerns and we want to be good stewards.”
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Moving forward, Overcast said he hopes off-roaders, their neighbors and legislators can work together to find solutions to problems that may arise in communities with off-road parks.
A public hearing is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. on Wednesday in Montgomery for the public to share their thoughts on this legislation.
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