The Sitka Assembly may soon roll back quiet hours for All-Purpose Vehicles on local roads.
All-Purpose Vehicles, like ATVs and utility vehicles were legalized for street use in Alaska two years ago. Sitka adopted the new state law with its own additional restrictions. An ordinance the Sitka assembly considered at its regular meeting on January 23 would roll back some of those restrictions by making manufactured two-seat All-Terrain Vehicles street legal and adjusting the city’s early morning curfew for APVs.
On January 9, the assembly approved, on first reading, an early version of the ordinance that rolled back curfew restrictions only for APVs traveling to the airport or the ferry terminal. But Sitka All-Terrain Riders president Mike Finn said his group wants the midnight to five a.m. curfew eliminated entirely.
“Going to the airport and ferry terminal for departures and arrivals is not really helping us. Nobody’s going to drive their APV to the airport with luggage stacked on their racks and leave the APV just sitting there unlocked,” Finn said. “The request to remove the curfew is because it’s the only mode of transportation for some APV owners.”
Assembly member Chris Ystad, who sponsored the original proposal, said they tried to scale the curfew back rather than remove it entirely to improve the ordinance’s chance of passing. But he said he’d support an amendment to cut the curfew.
“Someone on a motorcycle or anything, a similar vehicle that just happens to have two wheels instead of four, can be out at these hours,” Ystad said. “In general, personally, I didn’t want [the curfew]. I didn’t want to see it. So I’m happy to make the amendment.”
The rest of the assembly was on board with removing the curfew, and approved the amended ordinance unanimously. Since the amendment is considered a major change to the ordinance, it will come before the assembly again for a third reading in February.
