Group wants to drive ATV vehicles on roads

Members of a group of all-terrain and utility-vehicle fans are asking the Town of Fredonia to let them drive on town roads, hoping they’ll be able to ride on county and state roads as well.

The Belgium-based Lakeshore ATV/UTV Club presented the Plan Commission with a model ordinance that would allow the vehicles on all town roads and on county and state roads with speed limits of 35 mph or less.

The club would have to get permission from Ozaukee County to travel faster than 35 mph on county roads, Club Chairman Dave Otte said.

That means, for instance, vehicles could travel in Waubeka on Highway H, where the speed limit is less than 35, but not on Highway H north or south of Waubeka, where the speed limit is higher.

Signs paid for by the club would mark where the vehicles are allowed and not allowed.

Otte told members that several area towns have already passed the ordinance, including Farmington, Kewaskum, Scott and Wayne. This is the first such ordinance proposed in Ozaukee County, he said.

Getting permission from the county, village or cities is dependent on getting access to town roads first, Otte explained.

“One step at a time. It’s the towns first,” he said.

All-terrain vehicles, or ATVs, have three or four wheels and are ridden like motorcycles, with the driver straddling the vehicle and steering with handlebars. A utility task vehicle, or UTV, is accessed through doorways like a car, carries two to six people who sit side by side and uses a steering wheel.

ATVs and UTVs have been growing in popularity, Otte said.

He shared statistics with the commission showing that at the end of 2018, there were 396,611 registered ATVs and UTVs in Wisconsin, compared to 194,221 snowmobiles,  and that the number of ATVs and UTVs had increased by 121,000 over the last 10 years compared to the number of boats and snowmobiles declining by 12,000 and 30,000, respectively.

Otte said the vehicles are street legal in 35 states.

Club board member Brenda Peiffer, of Lake Church, said the club formed about five months ago and already has 70 dues-paying adult members.

“That was after just putting up a few fliers,” she said.

The group participated in five parades this summer, including Flag Day in Waubeka, and has organized some long-distance rides farther north, Peiffer said.

But she said local riders would be the main beneficiaries of the new ordinance.

“You’re not going to see a lot of out-of-towners coming through the town,” she said.

Peiffer said most of the traffic would be local, such as people going to visit neighbors or local businesses.

Local farmer Art Ternes, attending the meeting on another matter, supported the group’s request.

“It would certainly help the farm community” who use the vehicles to get around on their properties and occasionally need to go on town roads, he said.

While ATVs and UTVs are often used for off-roading, the club is not currently looking to gain access to off-road trails or use snowmobile trails, said Kevin Peiffer, another club board member.

Under state law, ATVs can be driven on the road by children ages 12 and older if they have completed a certification course and are under “direct verbal supervision” with an adult, meaning close enough to converse, club officials said. UTVs can be driven by someone 16 and older with certification. Owners of the vehicles also pay registration fees.

The town’s current ordinance doesn’t allow ATVs to be driven faster than 15 mph and only on designated trails. That would change if the club’s proposed ordinance is adopted.

Otte said the club next plans to approach the Town of Belgium to get permission to drive on roads there.

Plan Commission members took no action on the request. They said they need to study the issue more, and that it will be on their agenda when they meet Nov. 5.

“I can’t say anything good (about the proposal), and I can’t say anything bad,” Town Chairman Lance Leider said. “It’s just different.”