LANCASTER TWP — Whether Josh Inman is permitted to have a dirt bike track on his property may not be up to his, or his neighbors', testimony.

It may not even be up to what, specifically, he wants to build on his Scott Ridge Road residential property.

Instead, it may hinge on how many uses a property is permitted to have.

Lancaster Township interim solicitor Neva Stotler on Wednesday bookended the second public hearing over Inman's application for conditional use approval for a motocross track at his residence by saying she is of the belief that Inman's conditional-use application is inappropriate.

Township ordinances, Stotler said at the beginning of Wednesday's hearing, allow for one principal use, which can be either a permitted or conditional use, on a lot.

“In other words, we have a lot at 595 Scott Ridge Road that has the principal use of a residential house, and so it doesn't really qualify for a conditional use,” she said. “That is to say that, most likely, it was improper to request a conditional use because you wouldn't ever be allowed to have two primary or permitted uses on the lot.”

Stotler's Wednesday statements contradicted what had been conveyed to Inman beginning in October 2020, when former solicitor Chris Reese sent a notice to cease and desist his use of the motocross track. Stotler became interim solicitor when Reese left the role in late June or early July.

“The operation of a motocross track on your property is not a permitted use in the R-1 District,” Reese's Oct. 20 letter stated in part. “However, according to the zoning ordinance, you can apply for a conditional use of the property under the category 'recreation, noncommercial entertainment facility.'”

At the end of the meeting, when Stotler reminded Inman and his neighbors they could submit a legal argument as to whether conditional use would be appropriate, Inman raised his concerns over the fairness of denying the application on those grounds when the township itself had informed him conditional use would be how he'd be permitted to have the track.

“I can't fix that part of it,” Stotler said. “I see it as an issue,” such as issues raised by the neighbors and other parts of the ordinance, and will address it when the board makes its decision.

For nearly three hours Wednesday evening, Inman's neighbors decried the track he'd built in 2020 and his plans for a new, scaled-down track.Debbie Golden, who along with Doug Marshall owns property adjacent to Inman's, spoke first and claimed the track has caused a significant detriment in terms of generating noise, light and dust.Philip Hollerman, who along with his wife, Velma, owns the house across Scott Ridge from Inman, said the dust generated from the 2020 iteration of the track exacerbated his wife's asthma, and has caused significant expense to him by forcing him to more frequently replace air filters.John Krause, who owns a house a tenth of a mile northwest of Inman's property, however, said he only heard excessively loud noises from the track once late in 2020 and, other than that, didn't believe it caused sound issues prior or after that one date.