A father in Maryland has sparked outrage from his neighbors after building his 10-year-old son a luxury racing track on the family’s land.
Every year, the Siperko family travels to Florida, and sometimes even overseas, from their home in Weston County to practice racing. His son, Achilles, has a great passion for kart racing and hopes to become a professional driver one day.
However, his dream meant he often missed out on the typical childhood lifestyle due to traveling for racing.
So his father, Charles, decided to build a race track in his backyard so Achilles would have a place closer to home where he could practice.
The 48-year-old owner of the construction company said the project cost him about $100,000 when it was completed in May 2023. However, Siperko didn’t know he would need county or state permission to build it.
Dad, Charles Siperko, wanted his 10-year-old son to be able to pursue his passion closer to home and built the $100,000 race track in his backyard.
Achilles Siperko is passionate about racing and traveled to Florida and around the world to practice, causing him to miss out on the usual experiences of his childhood.
The track was completed in May 2023 and by December neighbors were complaining, leading to citations and fines against Siperko.
Complaints from neighbors came in December, prompting citations from both the county and state. Critics alleged that wetlands were disturbed during construction of the runway, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Wetlands, according to United States Environmental Protection AgencyIt provides wildlife habitat, floodplains, and maintains surface water flow during dry periods.
However, the family filed a petition asking for support to maintain their children’s new track. Your request in change.org highlights neighbors’ concerns about traffic, speeding, wetland disturbance and noise complaints, as well as how the family plans to rectify any concerns.
‘We didn’t know we needed to get permits or obviously we would have them. Perhaps naively or stupidly, we didn’t know the permit requirements and believed the asphalt company when it told us that paving that doesn’t abut a public road doesn’t require permits,” said Siperko’s wife, Sarah Troxel.
The petition claims they never intended to ignore the law, cause any environmental damage or allow public use of the road.
‘If we are granted conditional use, we will rectify any wetland issues…we have stated that we will limit use to electric motors, at certain reasonable times, to mitigate noise objections…When we moved into the house we received a report previously made environment. study that indicated there were no wetlands in that field,” Troxel continued.
He added that despite their negotiations and proposed agreements to keep the road in place without disturbing the neighbors, ‘they want the entire road torn up simply because they don’t want to have to look at it or have it in ‘their neighborhood.’
Troxel also stated that, regarding the complaints, he “doesn’t think noise is a problem anyway” due to his 11-acre property.
However, the neighbors continue to protest.
Dan O’Leary, board president of the Greater Highland Crossroads Association, said: ‘It’s very high-grade noise pollution. It’s worse than having a rock concert next to your house.’
‘If my son wanted to swim, I could build a pool. If I wanted to play soccer, we could build a soccer stadium. “Lacrosse, they could play lacrosse, whatever sport he wanted to play, but I can’t build a racetrack so he can become a professional driver,” Siperko said.
Dan O’Leary, board president of the Greater Highland Crossroads Association, said: “It’s very high-grade noise pollution. It’s worse than having a rock concert next to your house.
O’Leary also said he was surprised that the large construction project was built without zoning or environmental permits according to Yahoo News.
So far, two community meetings have been held to discuss the issue, and last week’s meeting was the first opportunity for nearby property owners to discuss the road with Siperko, their attorney and an engineer.
The road was inspected in January of this year after numerous zoning complaints, and six days later the owners received a notice of violation for disturbing or filling in the wetlands and stream buffer zone.
The neighbors also declared in their own request that the construction of the road is not ‘accessory to a permitted use on a property in the Rural Residential zone.’
Siperko was fined after admitting to building without a permit, and to face another citation they filed a conditional use application with the county.
‘We didn’t know we needed to get permits or obviously we would have them. “Perhaps naively or stupidly, we were not aware of the permit requirements and believed the asphalt company when they told us that paving that does not abut a public road does not require permits,” said Siperko’s wife, Sarah Troxel.
Every year, the Siperko family travels to Florida, and sometimes even overseas, from their home in Weston County to practice racing. His son, Achilles, has a great passion for kart racing and hopes to one day become a professional driver.
A public hearing, likely to be held next year, will determine whether the rink is permitted under Howard County Code, according to Howard County Planning and Zoning Department Director Lynda Eisenberg.
A follow-up inspection in September determined that the runway was causing an unauthorized disturbance to wetlands. It is also said to violate the 100-foot setback requirement for two neighbors, according to O’Leary, meaning that if conditional use is granted, part of the road would have to be removed.
Siperko has said he believes his family is being treated differently than other members of the community, Yahoo News reported.
‘If my son wanted to swim, I could build a pool. If I wanted to play soccer, we could build a soccer stadium. “Lacrosse, they could play lacrosse, whatever sport he wanted to play, but I can’t build a racetrack so he can become a professional driver,” Siperko said.
“It’s just a little discouraging.”