UTVs are affecting Moab’s quality of life

Dear Grand County Council,

I am writing to you to express my concern about the noise that the “Razors” are causing in our community and streets of Moab, especially around the Mill Creek and Spanish Valley Drive residential areas.

Last week I returned to my home in Moab after being on the road for several months as a touring musician. I look forward to resting at my Moab house on Buena Vista Drive. When my husband and I purchased our home last September, we envisioned it as our retirement home, base camp for family gatherings, peaceful mornings and creative, meditative endeavors. All of our hopes and dreams for the future culminated in the purchase of our home in Moab.

Last week, as I lay my head to rest around 10 p.m., I heard the droning sound of the Razors going up and down Spanish Valley Drive. Then again at 8 in the morning it began, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It was a non-stop roaring of vibrating noise that penetrated my house even with all the windows closed. I could not meditate, or work on my music peacefully. That day, I went out to Spanish Valley Drive and took a picture of all the Razors. There must have been 100 of them piling up to the four-way stop heading out toward Ken’s Lake.

As a growing community that is expanding, with an infrastructure of parks, a hospital, a college, trails throughout our town, and more permanent homeowners, I feel it is of the utmost importance that the people and leaders of Moab address the boundaries that must be laid out and set for our future to retain our quality of life.

We can effectively strike a balance between our quality of life and the influx of tourism by putting in protective ordinances regarding sound and traffic control in our neighborhoods. We need to make it clear to tourists and the companies based out of Moab that cater to them, that our neighborhood streets will not be invaded by the “fun pigs.” I did not buy a home in Moab to sell my soul or peace of mind to the tourists’ needs and money.

I am asking Grand County to please create a sound ordinance and a bypass route so that the Razors will not travel through our neighborhood between the Mill Creek area and Spanish Valley Drive up to the four-way stop.

If we don’t address this issue now, it will only get worse and people will think they just have the right to drive through our neighborhoods, disrupting our special moments and filling our heads with the noise we so greatly make an effort to escape by choosing to live out here in the desert.

I’m asking for you to please address this issue at your next meeting and remember to put your community and quality of life before the tourist dollar.