12/09/1974 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I temporary use permit. He hoped they would at least'havethe opp0rtunrty, to' find"out whe- ther the County Planning Commission would permit the activity in that area. Others speaking in favor of the-proposal were Del Butts, l26.Prai:de .Road; Junction City, . representing the Territorial Racing Associati0n, and Dwayne Crabtree, 2236, 'F10ral Hill Drive, representing the McKenzie Motorcycle Association. Mr. Butts presented copies of their by- (1995) raws to Council members saying theirs was a nonprofit organization the. same' as the ECAO. Mr. Crabtree said that cycle sports could not be ign0red, some place would have to be pro- vided in time and: the temporary facility requested wou,Jd provide a place for now. I Drs. Arthur Hockey and John Serbu, ' 1180 Patterson Street, neurological surgeons, stated ob- jections to use ofmotorcyeles bYY0unger people in view of statistical evidence of injured and maimed people resulting from the activity. They felt the city's cond0ning the activity through approving the .requested application, especially if the fac,ility was 'to be used by . younger children, was unjustified. Jim Roberts of Springfield and OwenL. Grove, 4780 Burnett Street, pointed out that the ob- (2069) ject of wanting a place for the ?pecific use of cyclists under supervision was 'to teach proper riding and use of equipment S0 that the injuries described by the doctors could be avoided. Public hearing was closed, there being no further testimony. Councilman Williams n0ted statistics quoted by doctors that indicated about a one-to-eight (21 chancethat'children between the ages of 16 and 21 riding motorcycles would either be killed .or permanently injured. In view 0f those statistics, he said, as a councilman he was not willing to endorse any action that would further the activity. He was not willing to say that motorcycles should be outlawed, but neither was he willing to say that the city should support or provide specifically for what appeared to., be an extremely dangerous facility. For the city to give such permission, he said, would make it that much more difficult for parents to deter their children from riding. Councilman Wood was in support of the request, He felt the city would be adopting double (2111) standards in view of other programs it was supporting if this program was not endorsed. He said the question was one of giving cyclists an opportunity to have supervised rt.ding and a place to ride safely. He thought the statistics presented might apply more to .on-street riders than to the type of riding that would occur on the ,~equested faci+ity, He-felt that not to support the facility would .beto ignore what would b~happening anyway in unau~horized locations. Councilwoman Beal agreed with Mr. Wil.1iams' viewpoint. Neither did she want to become in- (2130) volved in the city's telling people how to manipulate what was an essentially dangerous vehicle and one not necessary to ride. She'understood the organization was nonprofit but she thoughLthe city should not become involved in any sort of racing operation. And she recalled the nuisance created on 11th Avenue by the car racing which she did not want repeated. '. Even though it would be a temporary use, she said, when the temporary use was over the city would be responsible for finding another location for the activity, and that should be avoided. Councilman McDonald asked whether the city had the authority to permit the temporary use re- (2143) quested when property other than the airport was not in city ownership, Manager answered that the ground in question was owned by the city, private properties were immediately to the north and to the east. He said the County Planning Commission would be the agency which would have to give the temporary permit. Councilwoman Campbell was undecided about theproper~thing to do. She thought the purpose of the facility would be to teach proper riding and use of equipment which would result in eventual reduction of the statistics of injured and maimed people quoted by the doctors; yet she did not feel she wanted to "sign a death warrant" for those people who would use the facility. She favored doing something positive in the way o~ educating people who would be riding motorcycles. Dr. Serbu answered that he was not so concerned with "signing a death warrant," that was going to have to be done some day anyway. The real concern, he said, was with those having to live out their lives as cripples. Children 12 years old were not of age to know the terrible results that could"occur. Mr. Wood moved to revise the action taken in committee~of-the-whole denying per- e mission for application to the County for temporary use permit that would allow the motor sport park. There was no second, and the committee action stood. H. Council Minutes - October 29, 1974 as circulated. Approve . /' 12/9/74 - 10 ~,.... .' . - ,-,:;- 4\7 ' , 7 . _ ~ ~'-_ "I