Well, the problem is that it was legal to ride a properly registered and insured ORV on State Land. (It has always been illegal to ride an unregistered and uninsured one on State Land.) In 2003 the State came out with the ORV policy that banned ORV use from State Land, doled out $1000 fines (plus siezing unregistered ORVs), and promised 2 parks by 2005. Well, the banning and the fines happened, but the parks did not.
It'd be the same exact problem if the State came along one day and said that gun ownership is perfectly fine, but you can't shoot anywhere but a State Facility, which we promise to have operational in two years. Then they don't make that happen.
It's not a matter of the sport somehow becoming more popular after the ban happened. It's a matter of the state saying "no more, but it's cool we'll give you a place to ride" and that never happening.
As for opening a private park -- there's some problems with that. First of all, you'll need to find a lot of land in a place where you can build the park. You can't just go in the heart of the Pines and open up an ORV park without coming afoul of the Pinelands Commission. So you have to look and see where else there is land. Abandoned strip mines? Sure. There's not many around, and you'd probably be on the hook for any sort of environmental remediation that has to happen.
Lets say you manage to find some land. Alright, well this is prime real estate for development. So you now have to compete with the Hovnanians and the Kara Builders in the world who want to put up more McMansions or condos. And hey, the towns would rather have that because it means more rateables coming in.
Okay, you buy it, but along comes Fred Akers who will do everything in his power to influence the zoning board to deny whatever variances you need to build it. He's going to write articles in all of the papers denouncing the project as putting an undue amount of stress on local services (police, EMTs, etc.) and making life intolerable for anybody who lives around the park.
Fine, you get the variances done, and you're ready to clear land. Lets pretend that the Sierra Club hasn't managed to sue you out of existence. Then you have to find a company that's going to provide liability insurance for all of your riders. Because the first person who gets hurt is going to sue the hell out of the park, the people who own it, and anybody else who they can think of.
The sheer amount of money involved with opening a park makes it almost impossible for anybody to open up a park. You'd need a ton of corporate sponsorship to do it, and if you're Honda or Yamaha, why wouldn't you invest in a park in Pennsylvania which is far more "rider friendly" and less likely to tie up all of your money up in lawsuits.
Environmental groups saying "there's no reason why ORV riders can't build their own park" know exactly that there is no way it could happen. It's all a matter of practicality. I could probably paddle my canoe down the intercoastal waterway, but it's not practical.
So, lets see what it takes for an environmental group to open up a preserve. They send a mailer out to all of their members soliciting donations. They probably have a few corporate interests that will kick in money. Then they write a grant and get matching funds from Green Acres. They buy the land and nobody fights them on it because who in their right mind wouldn't want a nice nature preserve near them? There's really no worry about people being hurt on the property, so insurance is next to nothing.
Listen, even if you hate ORV's with a passion, you should be absolutely incensed that the state will come along and blatantly lie to the public. They promised two parks, and the obligation is on the state to keep that promise. You can be sure that if the state offered the PPA or NJCF some land and then never delivered it that there'd (rightly) be howls of protest coming from those camps. This is the main reason why I am pro-ORV parks - because I feel that it is my duty as someone who (Lord knows why) loves this State and abhors politicians who so blatantly lie.
The ORV ban was put in place for two reasons:
1) It's low hanging fruit to ban ORV's from state land. Most people don't like them. (Truth be told, I'm happy they're off state land, but they need a place to go.) It's a huge, easy political 'win' that is not going to really come back to bite anybody who supports it.
2) It's a source of revenue for the state and the towns. Every ORV rider that gets caught (and it happens a LOT, since they have police that pose as riders of broken down ORV's and more or less "sting" anybody who stops to help) pays a $1000 fine. If their ORV is not registered or insured (which sadly is not a requirement in the state), it's seized. Jackson and Manchester now have police that patrol using seized ORV's. It's called
civil forfeiture and is a dangerous trend that's happening more and more all over the United States.
The state pays for recreation areas for all sorts of hobbies. They maintain bridal paths, marinas, horse tracks, shooting ranges, hiking paths, etc. My tax dollars go to pay for a lot of recreation that benefits other people. The ORV hobby should be no exception.
Ugh, I can't believe I typed this much.
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