WESTHAMPTON — A one-day motocross event that was scheduled for this June was denied by the Planning Board, due to regulations designed to protect the area’s drinking water. The proposed site for the event is located over a watershed protection overlay district.
The Planning Board unanimously rejected a special permit from Westhampton resident Aaron Bauer, who owns the property where the event would be held. Bauer was not available to comment Monday.
“At the end of the day, the watershed protection overlay district does not allow for the commercial permit to be granted,” Planning Board Chair Jennifer Milikowsky said in an interview.
Milikowsky said after the second round of the public hearing on Feb. 5 when the permit was rejected, the Planning Board deemed the town’s zoning bylaws prohibits a commercial-use event, which the motocross event was classified as by the town, to occur in the watershed protection district.
“The Planning Board has a legal responsibility and we wanted to make sure we were following that correctly,” Milikowsky said.
While the event would be hosted on Bauer’s land in the woods off his property between 360 and 385 Main Road, or Route 66, he is not the lead organizer or promoter. The event, hosted by P27 Offroad, originally took place in 2024. While the event was planned for 2025, it never took place after receiving pushback from residents.
Bauer first made his case for this year’s motorcross event at the Planning Board’s Jan. 13 meeting, where about 50 residents spoke on the matter. In the continued public hearing many residents echoed concerns heard in January, such as the potential for noise, traffic and environmental worries.
The overlay district delineation the town used to make the decision was updated in 2025 and created by the Massachusetts Bureau of Geographic Information. A majority of the proposed racing site falls inside the area where the motocross event would occur.
A Watershed Overlay Protection District is intended to protect the quality and quantity of clean drinking water and aimed to regulate land-use activities in those districts according to the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.
In the permit’s application materials, an email sent to the Select Board from Holyoke Water Works Supervisor Source of Supply Matt Smith, said that the proposed site is over Manhan River watershed Zones A and C, that connects to the Tighe-Carmody Reservoir. He said the motocross activity could have severe consequences on the surface drinking water source including erosion and contamination.
“HWW [Holyoke Water Works] is very concerned that if such an event is permitted the impact on our watershed and drinking water source could be detrimental to the future of our water supply,” Smith wrote.
Building Commissioner Wally Marek said that Bauer had originally met with the Building Department to receive permitting for the event, but since the proposed event site does not have any buildings or structures, the department do not have a mechanism to permit the event.
“It was treated as a commercial use (event) because it was a for-profit application and a motocross race,” Marek said.
Since neither the building commissioner or Zoning Board of Appeals could permit the event, Marek recommended Bauer apply for a special permit through the Planning Board.
Milikowsky said the reason the event was able to be held in 2024 is because the town bylaws do not have a permitting process for one-day events. She noted the decision was made before she was elected onto the Select Board, but at that time Bauer asked the Select Board if he could host the event and they gave a set of guidelines that he had to follow but he did not need a specific permit.
Milikowsky said the town moved to address the fact that it does not have a single-day event permit at last year’s annual Town Meeting, but the article was removed from the warrant, since it was not fully prepared.
“The tabled general bylaw at Town Meeting last year was to try to create a permitting process for one-day events so we really don’t have any restrictions for singular one-day events,” Milikowsky said.
The reason the motocross event had to become permitted last year after it took place in 2024 was because it became a recurring event then requiring a permit, Milikowsky said.
“Once you start doing it multiple times, that’s like a change of use,” she said.
Milikowsky said ideally, the bylaw article will be brought back up in Westhampton in the near future but with the town currently has other priorities, such as dealing with a tough budget season.
“I don’t know if that’s a high enough priority right now but it remains something that we are interested to look at and bring it back to Town Meeting when it gets enough attention at the right time,” Milikowsky said.