Registration now required for off-road vehicles in N.J.

Kirk Moore

TRENTON -- Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed a bill that requires registration for off-road vehicles.

But advocates for riders say they succeeded in winning a condition that the penalties in the law won't take effect before the state designates at least one public riding area.

The legislation requires off-road vehicles to be registered, have license plates and be insured like automobiles. It 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 -- for instance, rare plants in the Pine Barrens -- 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 the damages.

Corzine, whose last day as governor is today, signed the law Monday, his office said.

The provisions will help control "the illegal riding damage to private properties, farmland, public spaces and conservation land," said Sen. Robert M. Gordon, D-Bergen, primary sponsor of the Senate bill. "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."

Riders' advocates scored a last-minute compromise with state legislators to guarantee at least one riding facility must be located on state-owned land before all the other law's provisions can take effect.

Buena Vista is among municipalities that followed the bill's legislative progress closely because of the prevalence of all-terrain vehicle activity locally.

"Essentially, this bill is a compromise bill," Mayor Chuck Chiarello said Monday. "It kind of meets the needs of the ATV riders and it meets the needs of the environmental community."

The legislation is 10 years in the making, noted Jaclyn Rhoads of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, which helped 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, Burlington County, 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 a former sand mine owned by Green Acres in Monroe, Gloucester County, has run into opposition from local critics. But riders continue to pursue that possibility.

Chiarello said the Monroe site is next to Collings Lakes, a residential community that falls into multiple counties, including Atlantic County.

"We have fought that issue for many years because of some of the environmental restraints on the property and the closeness to such a large population," he said. "There are a thousand homes in Collings Lakes."

Chiarello said the site might not be large enough for the ridership demands, creating spillover use in the adjacent area.

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Source: http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/20100119/NEWS01/1190316

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