UPDATE: St. Michael City Council, Attorneys Ask Property Owner to Close Track

The St. Michael City Council, under the advisement of City Attorney Dave Lenhardt, will ask a St. Michael property owner to shut down his motocross track because it does not fit into the city ordinance codes.

The council voted 5-0 to allow Lenhardt to send a letter on behalf of the city asking property owner Judd Billings to shut the track down.

“I built this years ago for my kids,” he said. “As they’ve gotten older, the bikes have, of course, gotten bigger. So that’s the problem.”

While Billings, himself, doesn’t ride, it’s not the first neighborhood project he’s started. He’s also built a dasher-board system for a hockey rink on his property – an old farm that predates the Frankfort Hills development. He’s also helped build the small baseball diamond that’s visible to the thousands of drivers that use County 34 each day.

But the track raised the ire of neighbors in the Frankfort Hills development, who said the noise pollution and dusty air did not allow them to enjoy their own homes.

“There are days we feel like we’re prisoners in our home. We can’t have the windows open on some nights when we’d like to. The question is, if this track was in a development like the Preserve or the Highlands, would it be O.K.? I don’t think so,” said Tina Tanchin, a backyard neighbor.

Fellow neighbor Roger Hanson came to the council's final meeting in July accompanied by an attorney, who state the track not only broke city laws, but state regulations enforced by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

"It's clearly not fit for an R2 development, which this is," said Jim Knutson.

Other neighbors tried to stick up for Billings and the track.

“He’s done a lot for the kids in our neighborhood,” said Brian Friede, Billings’ neighbor. “I used to ride on the track often. It’s not like it’s used everyday. This is a part-time thing. I’m guessing there are about five kids in the neighborhood who use it regularly.”

Still, that was enough to create a split between homeowners.

“We’ve tried to get the neighbors to talk to one another,” said Mayor Jerry Zachaman, referring to a meeting he had with Hanson and Billings back in November. “That obviously hasn’t worked. So, here we are."