Friends of Giant Rock Help Us. Help You. To Keep Riding.

Dear Members and Potential Members

There are two cases that FOGR has identified as having potential to turn the heads of county supervisors in favor of changing our SAD ordinance 3973. One case for staging citation 28.0404 and one for written permission needed on private property 28.0403. Both have been tried, found guilty and are currently in the appeal stage.
Recently I attended a meeting with our cited member and an attorney who has agreed to take the case for a more than reasonable fee. He seems to feel our complaint is legitimate and has at least a chance. He is not however leading us up the yellow brick road, and stated that 95% of appeals go in favor of the courts. This case will go to the court in April.
The permission slip case is being challenged by the defendant and will go to court in March. FOGR members have put in many hours to offer somewhat professional assistance for this case.
At the same time FOGR continues to require action from county supervisors who have agreed that the staging code needs to be modified. Local code enforcement agrees as they have been applying the permit requirement to 10 vehicles rather than persons as stated in the ordinance. State park officials have visited wonder valley to investigate OHV use and abuse, at whose request I don’t know.
Supervisor Neil Derry’s field representative Alan Rasmussen will attend our meeting on the 14th of this month. Hopefully to answer questions regarding the alternatives to the staging permit submitted by FOGR. I will list them here for your review.
1. Remove 3973 all together and enforce Ordinance 3096
2. Change staging to apply for vehicles registered as OHV green/red sticker vehicles only. (Excluding street legal vehicles) raise number to 25 vehicles when permit is required. Lower the permit fee to something reasonable for these small groups.
3. Revise ordinance 3973 to read as proposed by Friends of Giant Rock in June of 2007 (the RIDE program)
4. Remove staging code 28.0404 completely and enforce PC 415 (disturbing the peace) and PC 602.2 (trespassing) and direct code enforcement to enforce these issues under ordinance 3973 code 28.0406 (disturbing the peace)
5. - A staging permit should be required for a group of people who are gathered on private property for an OHV event that A. Charges for entry B. Advertizes the event for non-profit or commercial benefits and C. Is sponsored by an organization and open to the public. This system is currently used successfully by the BLM for events on public lands.
6. Change the number of person to 50 per property when a permit is required. This is the number previously used by BLM, whereas the number previously used by the County was 199.
7. Change the verbiage in 28.0404 to read a permit is required for a group of more than 24 green and red sticker vehicles on a private property.

Again at the supervisors meeting of February 10 supervisor Mitzelfelt committed to address the issue with newly elected supervisor Derry.
For the purpose of this ordinance public land should be defined as flood control property as explained by Mr. Randy Rogers. Not to be interpreted at BLM managed lands.
It must be embarrassing for the county when State Parks sends three officers to Wonder Valley from Sacramento to investigate OHV use and abuse when in fact there is none.
In the meantime FOGR continues to move forward on the appeals that may put pressure on the county to taking appropriate action.