Off-road vehicle bill OK'd

Kirk Moore

The Legislature has approved a bill to require registration for off-road vehicles but advocates for riders say they succeeded in winning a condition that the penalties in the measures won't take effect before the state designates at least one public riding area.

The bill would require off-road vehicles to be registered, have license plates and be insured like automobiles, and would set greater penalties for illegal riding on public land or on private property without landowners' permission.

Fines for a first offense would be between $250 and $500; second offense, between $500 and $1,000; and subsequent offenses, at least $1,000.

In addition, damage to natural resources on public land that require restoration would draw a fine of five times the cost of restoration as estimated by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

If an accused rider is younger than 17, the registered owner of the vehicle would be liable for those damages.

The provisions will help control "the illegal riding damage to private properties, farmland, public spaces and conservation land," Sen. Robert M. Gordon, D-Bergen, primary sponsor of the Senate bill, said in a prepared statement. "The penalties provision in the bill will assist DEP in strengthening enforcement and paying for natural resources damages caused by illegal off-road vehicle riding,"

The legislation has been 10 years in the making, noted Jaclyn Rhoads of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, which helped to organize conservation groups, municipal officials and farmers to promote off-road controls.

Originally, talks between those groups, off-road enthusiasts and the DEP's trails council formulated proposals to create as many as three public off-road vehicle parks, a quest that gained some urgency after the closing of the New Jersey Off-Road Vehicle Park near Chatsworth after its 10-year run.

Environmental activists and riding groups have battled over the location of proposed parks, with the state Sierra Club chapter threatening to block any attempt to use public Green Acres land for riding. Riders were stymied again last year when Little Egg Harbor zoning officials turned down a request to allow a riding park to be developed on a former sand mining site there.

Another proposal for a public riding area on an old mining site now owned by Green Acres in Monroe, Gloucester County, has run into opposition from local critics but riders have continued to pursue that possibility.

Riders' advocates did score a last-minute compromise with state legislators to guarantee that at least one riding facility must be located on state-owned land before all the other legislation's provisions can take effect, Rhoads said. Gov. Jon S. Corzine has until Jan. 19 to sign the bill.

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Source: http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20100113/NEWS01/1130343/1006/news01

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