Mike McCagg ccSCOOP News 03-12-09 - Fast-moving may describe the motorcycles Alan Wilzig collects, but it cannot be used to describe anything about the arduous process the Town of Taghkanic and he have gone through as a consequence of his determination to race those motorcycles on his Post Hill Road property. During a three-hour meeting on Monday night, members of the Taghkanic Planning Board concluded that they would decide next month if they would require Wilzig to complete a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for his proposal to pave a mile-long racetrack on the Wilzig compound.

The Planning Board asked their attorney, Lawrence Howard, to craft for next month a negative declaration that would relieve Wilzig of the requirement to create a DEIS. The attorney will also create a list of conditions already undertaken by Wilzig to mitigate the impact of the proposal. 

The board is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, April 14; however, the past two monthly meetings have been rescheduled to Monday so that the meeting could be held in the Taghkanic Firehouse in order to accommodate the large crowds that meetings about Wilzig’s proposal typically draw.

During this past Monday’s meeting, attended by about twenty members of the public, the Planning Board wrestled with a host of complexities in the zoning code, efforts already undertaken by Wilzig to mitigate the impact of the track on the town, and other issues while attempting to determine if the DEIS will be required.

David Everett, Wilzig’s attorney, urged the Board not to require the lengthy DEIS review, while Howard recommended the DEIS would be a wise requirement. “You are safer by following the presumption of the law by requiring a DEIS. There are potentially four or five large impacts that may be mitigated. You only need one to require a DEIS,” Howard said. The track proposal is considered a Type I review by the state with a presumption that a DEIS would be required.

While Everett countered that it was premature to jump to a conclusion that a DEIS is required, Howard cautioned, “I represent you, the board, and in my opinion you are leaving doors open for legal challenges“ if an environmental impact statement is not required. Planning Board Engineer Paul McGreery sounded a similar cautionary tone, calling “complex” both the proposal and the fact that Wilzig has taken steps to mitigate the impact of the track while the proposal is still pending.

Everett warned that doing a DEIS would take 12 to 18 months, while Howard countered that the review could be completed in 6 months.

In arriving at their conclusion on Monday, the Planning Board undertook a tedious point-by-point review of an environmental review worksheet to determine if the DEIS would be required. Issues examined on the worksheet included whether agricultural resources would be impacted by the track proposal and if that impact could be mitigated by Wilzig’s effort to create new farmland; the impact of noise from the track; whether the proposed track would cause erosion; etc. To nearly every question on the worksheet, the Board responded the impact would be small to minimal or none at all.

Also at Monday’s meeting, the Planning Board declined a request from the Zoning Board of Appeals to weigh in on the review of a challenge to the decision that the track may be considered a recreational use. It will reconsider the request next month.

In 2007, Wilzig, an avid collector of motorcycles, submitted a plan similar to the one now under consideration to construct a paved racetrack on his more than 250-acre property. That proposal was rejected by the Town Zoning Board of Appeals, which ruled the track is not a standard accessory use on a residential property. That decision was upheld in state court.

This time calling it a “recreational use,” Wilzig is seeking to pave the track so that he can ride his Ducati motorcycles there. A Ducati is a classic Italian motorcycle that is meant to be driven on streets. They are not considered safe to ride on dirt.

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