MALTBY – MXGP Inc. of Kirkland plans to drop its proposal to build a motocross track at a gravel pit in Maltby.
“That site for the track is basically dead,” MXGP president Gary Strode said Wednesday evening.
Next week, he said, he plans to retract a permit application for the track at 18827 Yew Way.
The company spent $200,000 and a few years studying the 58-acre parcel, he said. But it decided to scrap the plan because a new Snohomish County mineral land restriction prohibits a motocross track from being built on the parcel.
The new restriction took effect on Feb. 1, five days before the company applied for a permit.
“They never told us this change,” Strode said. It was “absolutely not fair.”
County Councilman Dave Somers said the timing was unfortunate for MXGP.
“I totally understand his frustration,” he said.
The track also faced two other issues: hazardous metal deposits and strong neighborhood opposition.
“It’s a great sense of relief,” Maltby resident Greg Lund said of MXGP’s plan to withdraw the application.
Lund and others formed a grass-roots group to oppose the track, saying the track would cause unbearable noise and heavy traffic and decrease property values. The group created a blog, circulated fliers and organized a community meeting.
“It would’ve changed the character of the area forever in a generally negative manner,” Lund said.
Somers said the Maltby site had too many homes and people around it. The county and MXGP are trying to find an alternative site in a remote area.
“There should be a place for this in Snohomish County,” Somers said.
MXGP has looked for a place to build a new track since the county shut down a track next to soccer and baseball fields south of Monroe in late 2005. The track came under fire in 2004, when the county started looking at athletic fields built on farmland without permits.
Many people want a place to ride motocross, and a track would help the county’s economy thrive, Strode said.
“We are working with the county, trying to find an alternative site. As for now, we have nothing,” he said.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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