CENTERVILLE -- Down there in the valley is school, work, obligations. Up here in the foothills above the city is freedom of a kind, open space where hundreds -- mostly boys and young men -- have a chance to go fast on a motorbike or an ATV.
Now that freedom is being threatened by a proposal to ban all motorized traffic on the foothills above Centerville. The city's parks and recreation advisory committee has recommended the fire break road and trails on the mountain above the city be reserved for hikers and horseback riders.The planning commission will consider the proposal for the second time at city hall Wednesday, April 14, at 7 p.m.
"I'm not for it," said A.J. Rose, 15, who was on the fire break road at 2:45 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. He had arrived on his Honda 75 right after school, with his friend, Mike Guest, riding behind.
"I'm here every chance I get. If I couldn't come ride up here, I'd feel like there's nothing to do. I love bikes," Rose said.
City officials know there are hundreds of motorbikers and ATVers who use the foothills, but they are expecting that thousands of hikers, bicyclers and horseback riders will want to come up here once trailheads are put in, the fire break road is leveled and graveled and the trail system is extended into the canyons. Motorized and nonmotorized use on the same trails would be dangerous, they say.
Centerville is planning to apply for a $100,000 grant from the state to round out their $200,000 budget for the trail enhancement project. Fifty thousand dollars will come from a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant the city has coming, and the balance is expected to come from in-kind services to be provided by volunteers.
When completed, the three and a half miles of trails above Centerville will become part of the 100-mile long Bonneville Trail, which will stretch along the Wasatch Front from Brigham City to Nephi.
Mike Terstegen, 40, a hiker from Bountiful, is in favor of banning motorized traffic on the foothills above Centerville. ATVers are supposed to stay in a designated area, but they go "all over the place," he said. However, he considers the three shooting ranges operating on the foothills even more objectionable. "When you come up here to hike, and you hear loud shots, it scares you," he said.
ATV enthusiasts don't see why there can't be both motorized and nonmotorized use of the mountain.
"Motorized traffic has as much right to it as the walkers and the horses," said Dan Thompson, 18, who comes to the foothills a couple of times a week to ride his Honda 250 Recon ATV. "I think they could pull off two trails."
But it's not simply a matter of creating two different trail systems, city officials say. ATVs traversing the foothills have already caused environmental damage, and the city has been receiving an increasing number of noise complaints from neighbors as houses are built higher and higher along the foothills. There is also a concern that since no other city along the Wasatch Front is approving motorized traffic on the Bonneville Trail, for Centerville to do so would be to attract out-of-town bikers and ATVers.
Dan Wood, a father whose family has used the mountain for generations, thinks it's discriminatory to take it away from the motorized vehicles and give it to the hikers and horseback riders.
"You take that away from these kids, and you're telling them to go home, watch TV and take drugs," said Wood. "It's good, clean fun up there."
Sherwood Pack, another father who has been riding on the mountain with his sons for years, thinks the attitude of Centerville officials shows "arrogance."
Sherwood said he suspects the city wants to ban motorized traffic in order to get state funding, but City Manager Steve Thacker said funding had nothing to do with the recommendation made by the parks and recreation advisory committee.
John Knudson, trails program coordinator for Utah's Division of Parks and Recreation, said that although his division has more money for nonmotorized than motorized grants, Centerville could seek a grant for both types of trail. In Summit County, the division funded both kinds of trails along the north fork of the Provo River, he said.