Brandon Olivares is the most clean-cut 8-year-old you’re ever
likely to see in court.
Hollister – Brandon Olivares is the most clean-cut 8-year-old you’re ever likely to see in court.
He wears collared shirts and has a well-maintained hairstyle, takes his shoes off before entering his house, and loves soccer and playing with his five-year-old brother, Dylan. But most of all, Brandon loves motocross. So much so that he’s become a nationally recognized racer at a point in his life when he’s still missing his two front baby teeth.
Brandon used to practice at least three days a week on the hilly course his dad built on the five-acre backyard at their house on Rosa Moraga Road. But since November of last year, Brandon’s family has been slapped with two citations and his parents forced to go to court – in one case even bringing Brandon and Dylan along. The reason, they soon learned, was continual noise complaints by a neighbor that had led to the county’s discovery of a grading violation with the track at their home. Now, with months of court appearances behind them and many more to come, it looks as though the Olivares family has two options: Give up on Brandon’s dream, or move out of San Benito County.
Brandon’s parents, Steven and Stacey Olivares, say the latter is the more likely option.
“I remember the morning after we had first mentioned we were thinking about moving,” his mother said. “Brandon woke up and said, ‘I’ll get my own job and buy my own house so I can build a track in my backyard and ride.'”
The Olivares family’s three closest neighbors all signed papers saying they didn’t mind Brandon’s riding in the family’s backyard, according to Steven. But one neighbor, Jim Lanning, did not sign the papers, and has been lodging complaints “since day one,” Steven said.
Lanning called the county almost daily with noise complaints, the Olivares family said, but nothing came of it until November of last year, when Steven was cited for a grading violation.
“I went in there and (the neighbor) was expecting them to bust me for noise. But they couldn’t, because there wasn’t enough to be considered a nuisance. So instead they told me I didn’t have a permit to have the track in my backyard,” said Steven. “But when we first started building the house there were county inspectors coming in and out all the time, and they could see that we were building this track. They never mentioned anything at the time.”
Lanning refused to comment except to say the issue is a “mess.”
The track in the backyard, however, is absolutely necessary to Brandon’s motocross career, his parents said.
“There are kids who go to these local competitions every week, but once you hit the nationals it’s a whole different game. We can’t be taking him down to Southern California (where most of the good tracks are) every day to practice, and when you’re at this level you need to practice all the time,” Steven said, and added that he and his wife decided to build a house on the property specifically because it would be conducive to a motocross track.
Brandon’s practice seems to have been working for him – his bedroom is half full of trophies taller than he is, and there is a slew more in the garage. He has a two-year contract with Fox racing, which outfits him with everything from his protective riding gear to the polo shirt he’s probably wearing right now. And the family has commissioned a DVD of Brandon at various meets flying off jumps and leaving his competition quite literally in the dust, all set to a score of heavy metal music.
There’s no question that Brandon is talented and very much committed to his sport. The problem, according to his parents, is Lanning’s refusal to accept that the motorcycle noise is hardly the worst that could happen.
“When you see my kid spray-painting your fence, that’s a problem. But when you see him out there in his backyard doing something with his dad… what’s so bad about that?” said Steven.
He added that he doesn’t think the motorcycle noise is very intrusive.
“It’s not that loud. It’s like playing a radio out in the middle of a field. You really have to listen to hear it,” Steven said.
The Olivares family is currently going through their second citation process. Stacey appeared in court a few days ago with Brandon and Dylan in tow (for lack of a baby-sitter), and she has another appearance scheduled next month.
“It was so awful for them (Brandon and Dylan) being in the room with these people in shackles. I mean, they learned what heroine was that day,” Stacey said. “I just feel so bad for him (Brandon). When the sheriff car comes down our driveway, he just says ‘Aren’t they for the drunk drivers and the people who steal?’ And I say ‘yes.’ There are so many other bad things out there, why do you have to focus on an 8-year-old kid?”
Stacey said Brandon “won’t even ride in the backyard anymore. He says ‘I don’t want to, they’ll come and get me.'”
For now, the law actually prohibits Brandon from riding on his course. If his neighbor calls in another noise complaint, the county will be forced to give the family another citation for using the facility without a grading permit.
“It’s really not the county’s fault, though,” Stacey said, “because they work on an on-complaint basis. If this guy was calling them every day, they had to do something just to get him off their back, so they came up with us not having a grading permit.”
Still, it will be several months before the county can decide who has the legal right of way: The neighbor, or the family who says they just want what’s best for their child.
If the county does end up denying the Olivares family their grading permit, Steve and Stacey said they’re ready to move out of San Benito County.
“We wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and think ‘What are we going to do? Are we going to have to move?’ But we will. This is our kid we’re talking about, and this is his dream,” Stacey said. “If he wanted to race bulls tomorrow, we’d still back him up.”
Jessica Quandt is a staff writer for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at [email protected].
