A father in Maryland has sparked outrage from neighbor’s after building his 10-year-old son a lavish race track on the family’s land. 

Each year the Siperko family travel to Florida, and sometimes even abroad, from their home in Weston County to practice racing. Their son, Achilles, has a strong passion for go-kart racing and hopes to become a professional driver one day. 

However, his dream meant that he was often missing out on a typical childhood lifestyle due to travelling for his pursuit of racing. 

So, his father, Charles, decided to build a backyard racetrack so that Achilles would have somewhere closer to home where he could practice.

The 48-year-old construction company owner said the project cost him around $100,000 by the time it was finished in May 2023. Siperko, however, didn’t know he would need permission from the county or state in order to build it.

Complaints rolled in from neighbors come December, leading to citations from both the county and state. Critics alleged that wetlands were disturbed during the construction of the track, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment. 

Wetlands, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, provides habitat for wildlife, floodplains, and maintaining surface water flow during dry periods. 

However, the family put up a petition asking for support to keep their sons new track in place.  Their petition on change.org highlights the neighbors concerns of traffic, speeding, wetland disturbance, and noise complaints, as well as how the family plan on rectifying any concerns. 

‘We didn’t know that we needed to pull permits or obviously we would have. We were perhaps naively or stupidly not aware of the permitting requirements and believed the asphalt company when they told us that paving that doesn’t adjoin a public road doesn’t require permits,’ said Siperko’s wife, Sarah Troxel. 

The petition states that they never intended to disregard the law, cause any environmental damage or allow public use of the track. 

‘If granted the conditional use we will rectify any wetlands issues… we have stated that we will limit use to electric motors, certain reasonable times, to mitigate noise objections… When we moved into the home we received a previously done environmental study that stated there were not wetlands in that field,’ Troxel continued. 

She added that despite their negotiations and proposed agreements to keep the track in place without disturbing neighbors, ‘they want the whole track ripped out simply because they don’t want to have to look at it or have it in “their neighborhood.”‘

Troxel also stated that, in relation to complaints, she doesn’t ‘see noise being an issue anyway’ due to their 11 acre property. 

However neighbors continue to protest. 

Dan O’Leary, chairman of the board for the Greater Highland Crossroads Association, said: ‘It’s noise pollution of a very high degree. It’s worse than having a rock concert next to your house.’ 

O’Leary also said he was surprised 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 problem, with last week’s meeting the first opportunity for nearby property owners to discuss the track with Siperko, his attorney and an engineer. 

The track was inspected in January this year after numerous zoning complaints, and six days afterward the property owners were issued a notice of violation for disturbing or filling in the wetlands and stream buffer. 

The residents also stated in their own petition that the construction of the track is not ‘accessory to a permitted use on a Rural Residential zoned property’. 

Siperko was issued a fine after admitting that he had built without a permit, and to deal with another citation they have filed a conditional use application with the county. 

A public hearing, likely said to be held next year, will determine if the track is permitted under Howard County Code, according to Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning department director Lynda Eisenberg. 

The track was determined to be causing an unauthorized disturbance to wetlands in a follow up inspection in September. It is also said to encroach on the 100-foot setback requirement for two neighbors, according to O’Leary, meaning if conditional use is granted part of the track would need to be removed. 

Siperko has said he believes his family is being treated differently than others in the community, reported Yahoo News.  

‘If my son wanted to swim, I could build a pool. If he wanted to play soccer, we could build a soccer stadium. Lacrosse, they could do lacrosse, any sport he wanted to do, but I can’t build a racetrack so he can become a professional driver,’ Siperko said. 

‘It’s just kind of discouraging.’