A petition to allow ATV, UTV or other off-road vehicles (ORVs) on roads in Brown County has made it to the desks of the Brown County commissioners.

At the April 21 commissioners meeting, Diana Biddle said the commissioners intended to do more research into a possible ordinance to allow ORVs alongside their lawyers and local law enforcement.

She said a county ordinance had been passed in 2005 that allows unregistered vehicles on county roads in hardship situations. “I am trying to remember the actual situation that caused this to be passed, and I think it was someone who had lost their driver’s license and may have been riding a tractor up and down the road,” she said.

To get a hardship permit under that ordinance, a person would have to go through several steps including registering the vehicle with the Department of Natural Resources and proving they have a physical disability that restricts their ability to operate a regular motor vehicle. The permit would be limited to specific county roads listed on the application and approved by the highway department. The petitioner also would have to go before the commissioners at a regularly scheduled meeting to explain the necessity and the route of public roads that the off-road vehicle will be used on.

But that existing ordinance wouldn’t apply to most of the people who are now seeking to ride ORVs on county roads. This new petition was started a few weeks ago by resident Paul Hazelwood.

Much of the state, especially counties with flat land, allow some type of off-road vehicle use. The only county in this region, DNR Region 6, that allows it is Morgan County.

Off-road vehicles can be used on county roads for agricultural purposes, but Biddle said she thought that would have to be approved by the DNR.

“We certainly will want to talk with our sheriff, our DNR partners, because they are the ones that will have to enforce this particular ordinance,” she said.

She was going to forward the ordinance information to the county’s legal team at Barnes and Thornburg and suggested setting up an administrative meeting to go through the details with the lawyers.

“We have a lot of options in terms of limitations and restrictions,” she said.

“We will put that on our agenda to start looking at it.”

Helmsburg resident Erika Bryenton asked if golf carts also could be approved for use in specific areas, like Helmsburg.

Golf carts are currently not included in the draft ordinance which Hazelwood passed to the commissioners, primarily because they cannot get up to road speeds and he didn’t see them having as much use out in the county where he lives as what they might have in more of a neighborhood setting. But he wasn’t opposed to the idea.

Biddle said her daughter lives in Paragon, in Morgan County, where golf carts are driven often. “You might as well just not have a car in Paragon because everybody has a golf cart,” she said.

She said the commissioners would include golf carts in future research and discussions.

A state law that dates back to at least 1995 made off-road vehicles illegal on roads in every Indiana county, but it allowed counties, cities or towns to pass their own laws to allow them if they choose. Sixty-five counties have, and three others allow them for agricultural use.

The following is what Hazelwood proposed in his draft ordinance:

• ORVs could not be operated on state highways, on streets in Nashville town limits or on state lands in Brown County, only in unincorporated areas. The county commissioners could designate any road as “unsuitable for off-road vehicular traffic” by posting signs.
• Drivers would have to be 18 or older with a valid driver’s license, insurance and registration.
• The vehicles would have to be registered with the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles and meet all the requirements in state law to receive registration, and have the appropriate decals displayed on the vehicle.
• The vehicles allowed on county roads would include ATVs with at least three tires, recreational off-road vehicles with at least four tires, snowmobiles, amphibious machines, “multi-wheel-drive or low-pressure-tire” vehicles, “ground effect air cushion” vehicles, and “other means of transportation deriving motive power from a source other than muscle or wind.”
• ORVs driven on roads would have to have a working muffler “to prevent excessive or unusual noise and annoying smoke.”
• An ORV driving on a road between 30 minutes after sunset to 30 minutes before sunrise would have to display headlights and taillights.
• ORVs could not be driven within 100 feet of a dwelling between midnight and 6 a.m. unless it’s on the person’s own property or as a guest.
• Anyone on the vehicle who’s 18 or younger would have to wear a U.S. Department of Transportation-approved helmet. This is state law.
• No passengers younger than 6 could be on the vehicle, and the number of passengers would be limited to the number of seats on the vehicle.
• There are other provisions in the draft about carrying firearms or bows on an ORV, and about driving them in or across waterways, railroads, cemeteries, planting areas and frozen bodies of public waters.

Hazelwood posted a petition on change.org a few weeks ago and started a Facebook group, “Brown County UTV and ATV Ordinance,” on March 24. As of April 30, the petition had 1,723 out of a goal of 2,500 signatures.