Sinking Creek 4WD Association

Check it....

http://www.nbc29.com/story/21830979/alb ... -ordinance

Dammit

Fuck the government

Wow, never got to wheel there that's a shame

BadAssEddie wrote:Fuck the government

No, in this case cuss the neighbor, the government's hands were tied on that one and they were doing what they should have

willhf1011 wrote:No, in this case cuss the neighbor, the government's hands were tied on that one and they were doing what they should have

Yes, the neighbor is a buzzkill, but the fact that there are zoning regulations on what is done on private land is nonsense. So, still fuck the government.

It seems like the simple solution would be to disban RCPFA and just have people who own land letting people wheel on that land. Have a "donation" for use and bypass needed zoning.

BadAssEddie wrote:

willhf1011 wrote:No, in this case fuck the neighbor, the government's hands were tied on that one and they were doing what they should have

Yes, the neighbor is a buzzkill, but the fact that there are zoning regulations on what is done on private land is nonsense. So, still fuck the government.

I have to disagree wholeheartedly. It sucks that it was shut down, but zoning is a government regulation that I stand behind 200%. Coming from an area that only still exists because of zoning laws, I cannot knock it at all.

Although the park was awesome and we all loved it, the fact that they were doing that without a permit was just asking for trouble and was stupid on their part. Zoning regulations are not hard to deal with if you are proactive and actually go about them in the correct fashion. Zoning laws are the only thing that maintains scenic land anywhere near cities anymore.

I hate to say it but if I had to choose between maintaining strict zoning laws and giving up Crozet, zoning would win out every day of the week.

Additionally, I would be willing to bet that 90% of the residents in that area are in favor of maintaining residential/ag zoning in the area, so in this case the laws are serving the majority, which is what they are supposed to do.

I know it doesn't make as much sense to someone who hasn't fought that battle, but talk to anyone who lives in a truly rural area within reasonable distance of a city and I'd bet you they will all be saying the same thing. I'm not in favor of a walmart, football stadium, dragstrip, or a university being built across the road on my neighbors farm and the only thing that prevents that is zoning.

BadAssEddie wrote:
It seems like the simple solution would be to disban RCPFA and just have people who own land letting people wheel on that land. Have a "donation" for use and bypass needed zoning.

Also, it's likely that wheeling will continue there privately, since zoning has no control over that. However, as the article stated advertising it as a destination and making a profit off the patrons is not legal. They were running on borrowed time to begin with, it was unwise of them to not try to have their bases covered.

I have no intimate knowledge of the situation, but I would be willing to bet that there was an incident or occurrence that brought this about. What was going on there was no secret to anyone in the area (zoning office included). It took someone lodging a complaint to force their hand. Likely either a new owner or a disgruntled one because of a disagreement/incident. It sucks that a new owner could just move in and start complaining, but if you are doing something you shouldn't, you need to be prepared for it. I am not knocking RCPFA in anyway, I don't doubt they went as far as they possibly could towards satisfying this landowner and preventing this situation.

Pending more information to come, this is a perfect example of how careful we as individuals have to be about our impact on surrounding communities. It doesn't matter how many law abiding, considerate, careful, and respectful individuals there are, it can sometimes take only one incident or one person to ruin it for us all. The reality is we are fighting a losing battle in which we are tremendously outgunned and every time we do something stupid pertaining to offroading we give potential ammunition to our enemies.

This applies especially to where we/you wheel. Just because you don't have an SC4WDA sticker on your rig and aren't wearing one of our t-shirts doesn't mean that there are no repercussions for wheeling where you shouldn't. In fact, not getting caught still doesn't mean you haven't fed ammo to the "stop wheeling" fight. Where ever we wheel we leave an impact, there is no debating that. It is our job to minimize that impact as much as possible and especially make sure that impact DOES NOT exist where we haven't been granted permission to be. That doesn't mean cover your tracks when you go there, it means don't go there at all.

The "fuck the government" whistle blower attitude is never going to get us anywhere. It is very easy (and almost encouraged today) to just pass it off as a draconian government intentionally trying to screw over good honest people. While this may be the case in certain situations (I don't care to make this into a political statement) we need to look at the other factors as well. Irresponsible use/treatment of land (whether it is yours or not) is a well known and clear way to get wheeling into the limelight in a bad way. Again, it's up us as participants in this sport to make sure we have our shit straight so we don't bring that kind of attention to the offroad world.

willhf1011 wrote:
This applies especially to where we/you wheel. Just because you don't have an SC4WDA sticker on your rig and aren't wearing one of our t-shirts doesn't mean that there are no repercussions for wheeling where you shouldn't. In fact, not getting caught still doesn't mean you haven't fed ammo to the "stop wheeling" fight. Where ever we wheel we leave an impact, there is no debating that. It is our job to minimize that impact as much as possible and especially make sure that impact DOES NOT exist where we haven't been granted permission to be. That doesn't mean cover your tracks when you go there, it means don't go there at all.

The "fuck the government" whistle blower attitude is never going to get us anywhere. It is very easy (and almost encouraged today) to just pass it off as a draconian government intentionally trying to screw over good honest people. While this may be the case in certain situations (I don't care to make this into a political statement) we need to look at the other factors as well. Irresponsible use/treatment of land (whether it is yours or not) is a well known and clear way to get wheeling into the limelight in a bad way. Again, it's up us as participants in this sport to make sure we have our shit straight so we don't bring that kind of attention to the offroad world.

Well said Will, I agree 100%, wheeling is a privilege and we need to do what ever we can to try to keep as many places open as possible

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