Motocross Park Shuts Down

Less than a week after its grand opening in a dry portion of the Irvine Lake bed, the Saddleback Motocross Park has closed because of permit problems.

Since the park opened Labor Day weekend, motocross enthusiasts have flocked to the Woody’s Cove area to ride the three rolling courses carved out of the lake bed.

But the day before the official opening, the county planning department ordered the park’s operators, Saddleback Motorsports Partners LLC, to stop the bulldozers from finishing the course because the company didn’t have a grading permit.

Saddleback Motorsports opened the park anyway, believing it had the necessary approvals. The park remained open until Thursday, when course operators volunteered to close because of confusion over permits.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer said he is not opposed to off-road motorcycle racing, but he is not certain course operators obtained the required grading permit.

“I think motocross is a great extracurricular outdoor sport, but we want to make sure they follow the legal process,” Spitzer said. “We have the permit process in place for a reason. The county is saying, ‘If you’re out there and you have a bulldozer, there are stability of soil, safety and runoff issues.’ We issue permits for safety reasons.”

Jon Waller of Saddleback Motorsports said he believed his company obtained the necessary approval from the Serrano Water District, which co-owns the land with the Irvine Co.

“We felt that if you have a standing permit from an agency accepted by the county, you don’t need another one,” Waller said. “Based on the due diligence performed by myself and our attorneys, [we were] comfortable we had the right to open.”

Officials from the county planning department, the water district and Saddleback Motorsports met late Thursday afternoon to try to clear up the confusion. They plan to meet again early next week.

“I don’t think their interpretation of the permits was necessarily unreasonable, but I’m not sure it was accurate,” said Brian Murphy, a spokesman for the planning department. “They are putting together a package of their permits and their basis for interpretation. If we don’t agree with that interpretation, we’ll direct them through the proper process.”

Meanwhile, local motocross riders are left without a track in Orange County. The closest facilities are at least an hour away, in San Bernardino and Lake Elsinore.

The last motocross park in Orange County--Saddleback Park, an open-trail riding park that attracted national and international competitions--closed in 1984 after it was denied insurance after several deaths and serious injuries.

The old park, which opened in 1968, was two miles west of the new park, next to a landfill on Irvine Co. land. In the years since motocross left Orange County, the sport’s popularity has exploded.

“The off-road community is a close-knit bunch,” Waller said. “They are very supportive of this operation and quite a few have offered to do whatever they can.”

Planning department officials said they received about 200 phone calls and 75 e-mails Wednesday from disgruntled motocross riders.

Over four days of operation, the park off Santiago Canyon Road attracted about 1,500 vehicles and 250 riders, park officials said. That caused traffic and safety problems, Spitzer said.

“If you put 200 vehicles out there on a two-lane road and bring in 200 motorcycles, cars and pedestrians, you are going to have a problem,” Spitzer said. “The CHP reported that it was a mess. I don’t think the operators came up with a parking plan.”