Bike Week changes tabled until after '12 rally

LACONIA — Six weeks after the Motorcycle Technical Review Committee recommended  changes to regulations governing Motorcycle Week, the City Council last night choose to adopt some but defer the remainder until after the staging of the 2012 rally.

"Most of the things in here I don't have a problem with," said Councilor Bob Hamel (Ward 5), when Planning Director Shanna Saunders again presented the proposal. "But, some of them I do." Hamel, who expressed misgivings about the new regulations when they were first presented, said  he was especially concerned  that many  property owners at The Weirs who would be most affected by the changes were away from the city for the winter.

"It's wrong to hit people with this a month before the event," he said. "We don't know how it affect these people."

City Manager Scott Myers reminded the councilors that changes to the traffic regulations, the most controversial aspect of the proposal, had been withdrawn pending further discussion. Of what remained, he said "I don't think there is a change here that would surprise anyone." He said that the regulations bearing on public safety mirrored changes to state law and would be enforced this year regardless of any action taken by the council.

Hamel, echoed by Councilor Henry Lipman (Ward 3), asked to defer other changes referring to the operation of burnout pits, dyno-tuners, beer tents, temporary campgrounds and "appropriate clothing" for vendors. Lipman cautioned Saunders "to make sure our regulations do not become an event on top of the event."

Saunders said that members of the MTRC — all city employees — would be "very disappointed" if their recommendations were deferred until after the rally. She said that the committee invited more than 100 interested parties to its meeting in October. "Folks need to know where we're going," she said, "and I believe they are ready for it."

When Hamel moved to table the recommendations until after Motorcycle Week, Myers pointed out that the city would have no authority to regulate the operation of burn-out pits or to require applicants for permits to pay outstanding debts to the city. Several councilors indicated they wanted to regulate burn-out pits and collect unpaid debts. Myers offered to draft separate ordinances to address only those issues for the next council meeting.

Councilor Matt Lahey (Ward 2) urged his colleagues to reconsider their decision to table the remainder of the recommendations. "It discourages staff," he said, predicting that when the MTRC returns with its recommendations the same arguments would be heard.

The council unanimously agreed to adopt changes to the licensing ordinance recommended by the MTRC, but with Lahey dissenting tabled proposed changes to the ordinances regulating special events.

NOTES: The City Council approved the sale of  Lot 8 in the second phase of the  Lakes Business Park, but withheld the identity of the purchaser. The 3.04-acre lot on the east side of Hounsell Avenue at the northern end of the park adjoins the property housing a medical office building. The lot was listed for $118,560, but the purchase and sale price is $85,000. . . . The council authorized Mayor Mike Seymour to write to the Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives and Representative Paul Mirski (R-Enfield), chairman of the Special Committee on Redistricting,  expressing opposition to the redistricting plan that would combine Ward 4 with the towns of Belmont and Gilmanton to form a House district. The city, which currently has five House seats, all elected at-large,  would would be reduced to four. Laconia is one of a number of cities, including Manchester, Concord, Keene, Dover, Somersworth, Portsmouth and Franklin, from which wards have been stripped to form districts with adjacent towns.   . . . The council  unanimously endorsed the recommendation of the Planning Board to change the zoning of Ahern State Park from Single-Family Residential to Rural Residential I. In the Rural Residential I district the minimum lot size is two acres and the minimum road frontage is 250-feet compared to one acre (or less with municipal utilities) and 100-feet. The change is intended to forestall overly dense development of the property should it fall into to private hands.