{"id":52904,"date":"2020-07-03T11:20:07","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T17:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/four-corners-motorcycle-rally-proposes-campsite-activities-southwest-of-durango\/"},"modified":"2020-07-03T17:20:07","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T17:20:07","slug":"four-corners-motorcycle-rally-proposes-campsite-activities-southwest-of-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/four-corners-motorcycle-rally-proposes-campsite-activities-southwest-of-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Corners Motorcycle Rally proposes campsite, activities southwest of Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Event
Event organizers for the Four Corners Motorcycle Rally want approval for a temporary campground over Labor Day Weekend, but nearby residents have concerns about noise, fire danger and possible drunken driving.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A proposal to use a camp near Hesperus for the Four Corners Motorcycle Rally, which could draw hundreds of people, has residents in the rural part of the county concerned about noise, fire and drunken driving.<\/p>\n

For years, the Four Corners Motorcycle Rally was held in Ignacio during the Labor Day weekend, but after a host of complications, the event fell under new ownership in 2017.<\/p>\n

The new owners, Trevor Bird, who runs Durango Harley-Davidson, and John Oakes with Freeze Management have submitted a plan to La Plata County to create a campground for the event on 320 acres near Hesperus.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the last three years, we\u2019ve been searching for a piece of land we would be able to operate for additional camping,\u201d Oakes said. \u201cIt won\u2019t be open to the public. It will be a ticketed, three-day camping package.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the plan submitted Thursday, the camp would be at 10683 County Road 120, about 10 miles southwest of Hesperus, on land leased from Rod Woodruff, who runs the Buffalo Chip Campground, which serves the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.<\/p>\n

The location would be up and running Sept. 4-6 and feature on-scene live music and entertainment, food and alcohol, and up to 150 campsites. \u201cAmplified music\u201d would stop at 10 p.m., according to county records.<\/p>\n

This year, because of crowd restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the rally would allow 500 guests and about 50 staff members. Oakes said that cap might change when new public health orders are issued in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom an operational standpoint, we\u2019ll adjust, adapt and comply with every law and regulation,\u201d said Oakes, adding the event will self-certify with San Juan Basin Public Health.<\/p>\n

This week, a virtual community meeting with neighbors brought out nearly 30 people, most of whom opposed the rally, said Daniel Murray, a La Plata County planner.<\/p>\n

As a result, the organizers\u2019 attempt to obtain a special event permit, which is usually approved by the Planning Department, will instead go before La Plata County commissioners for a vote.<\/p>\n

Commissioners said Thursday it was too soon to comment about the matter. It is expected commissioners will hear the request July 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a project that is not something commissioners should be forming opinions about until the matter is formally before us for consideration, should it come to us,\u201d Commissioner Julie Westendorff said.<\/p>\n

Jim Harris, whose property is adjacent to the campground, said his main concerns were fire danger and noise. He also expressed concern that live bands would play into the night, and a liquor license could lead to drunken driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a rural, residential area, and that just doesn\u2019t belong here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice and quiet out here, and that\u2019s why everyone moved here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Ishay, who lives about a half-mile from the property, was concerned that partying might get out of hand.<\/p>\n

She pointed to an article in the Argus Leader<\/a>, which said the 2019 Sturgis rally saw 135 DUI arrests, 83 felony drug arrests, 842 citations, 26 injury crashes and two fatal crashes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some of the same organizers at Sturgis,\u201d Ishay said, referring to Woodruff\u2019s lease. \u201cThey didn\u2019t do a great job there, so why would we expect they\u2019d do a good job here?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ishay also said western La Plata County is the wrong place for a temporary campground.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want people to think we\u2019re against motorcycles; my husband has a motorcycle,\u201d she said. \u201cThe problem is this is not the location to have this event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calls to Jenny Burbey with the Florida Mesa District Planning Group, which helps on land-use issues in that part of the county, were not returned Thursday.<\/p>\n

Oakes, for his part, said event organizers share residents\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have listened, adjusted and adapted our plans to produce a safe event,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will operate a safe and successful event.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neighbors express concerns about motorcycle event<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2057,28,866,1680,1512,810],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-52904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-four-corners-motorcycle-rally","tag-headlines","tag-hesperus","tag-la-plata-county-commissioners","tag-la-plata-county-government","tag-tourism-recreation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52904"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=52904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}