I spent all morning at a meeting of the Maricopa County (AZ) Planning and Zoning Commission, watching debate on the future of Arizona Motorsports Park.
I know that CCS doesn't race there, but a lot of SW and CA CCS racers have done track days there, and many of us plan to participate in the TEAM AZ winter racing series. I for one would love it if CCS switched to AMP over firebird, but it ain't likely.
The track is in trouble. Local residents have complained about noise from the track (primarily from car events, i gather). The county is deciding what to do. The track has bent over backwards and proposed some sort of sound monitoring program, and absolute decibel limits (ala Laguna Seca). The residents, a bunch of gray haired NIMBY types, are starting to smell blood, and insisting on noise levels and other restrictions that could put AMP out of business.
Today, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted to approve their staff's reccomended revisions to the zoning plan, which restrictions are harmful to the track's continued existance. The whole mess goes in front of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on December 17, 2003, and the most likely outcome is that they vote to accept the Commission's action. there is a very real chance that AMP could be shut down by next year. Or they could be forced to file a lawsuit and pay their lawyer to fight this in court, which is an expense that they likely cannot bear.
What can you do:
1:
Look at http://www.maricopa.gov/planning/pdf/pz/Z2001050.pdf for a comprehensive explanation of the situation to date. As an academic matter, please take note of all the nonsense it takes to build a new racetrack, and stop being amazed that there aren't more of them.
2:
Get the word out. Post a copy of this message to as many chat groups, news groups, mailing lists, websites, etc. as you can. If enough motorcycle and car people find out about this, AMP has a much better chance.
3:
if you live in Maricopa County Arizona, write to the Maricopa County Supervisor Max Wilson
mwwilson@mail.maricopa.gov, or call his office at 602.506.7642. Try and attend the B.O.S. meeting on December 17, 2003 in Phoenix. You may not think it matters, but they took a head count of the crowd today, and the staff guy making his report to the commission specifically noted the number of emails the board has recieved, both pro and con. So your email and/or your presence will be noted.
Lessons learned:
If you're going to build a race track, which might be controversial with the local residents, it looks a lot better if you follow the rules. In this case, build a racetrack, residents complain about noise, which causes investigations. Investigations find that you don't have building permits for your structures, you don't have proper water and sewage, and you don't conform to your special use permit.
If the facility had followed the rules (and we'll ignore the "street legal vehicles" part), the investigation would have said that yes, it's noisey. Going into a hearing, I think you have a much better chance of success if the only complaint was the track was noisey, rather than its noisey, doesn't have proper permits, etc.
Signing up for the "street legal vehicle" thing was dumb. To take that literally (which I don't see any reason why the county would not) once you tape your headlight the vehicle is no longer street legal. A safe racing environment and street legal vehicles cannot coinside - bikes or cars.
That said, who would oppose to building a racetrack at the end of an air force base runway. Seems like a great use for the land, or at least better than building an elementry school.
Moral of the story: follow the rules so at least when someone objects, you have a leg to stand on.
And if they close down AMP, we should get a bunch of stunta's to ride through the objecting nieghborhoods. When they get caught, they could used the excuse that the track was closed down, resulting in the propagation of illegal street racing. Not to mention the harley riders making plenty of noise
-z.
QuoteAs an academic matter, please take note of all the nonsense it takes to build a new racetrack, and stop being amazed that there aren't more of them.
Seems like all that "nonsense" is what's making what would be a single issue with the track a much larger set of several issues. AMP certainly isn't building credibility. And you don't need a permit for that.
AMP should simply clamp down on the noise violators on there own and not wait for the mandate from the state. It's a battle that they likely won't win but if they give in soon enough it might be the only battle they have to fight. I for one don't see the need for bikes that are significantly louder than the norm even though they tend to show up at every track day. Heck, someone just put a motocross track in the middle of downtown LA and was able to do it because they set noise limits up front and defined how they were to enforce them.
This is going to be real interesting. AMP needs money to stay open. The money they recieve from track days and races on weekends only will not do it. They need to be able to make use of it during the abnormal five days. That means rental for race team practice, which in turn means Indy/Champ cars (no decibel limit-VERY loud), Nacsar (open headers too- VERY loud), Grand American/Rolex series sports cars (quieter but still very loud) and motorcycles (not too loud but still noisy). Now the trouble is you have jets flying above too (ULTRA_FREAKALOUD) but only once every hour or so, and it's our boys and girls creating the sound of freedom so they are off the hook (Semper Fly-former Marine here). Now when this track was pitched to the locals it was to be a guy and his car club buddies out playing. One would envision (if not a racer) old Jag's, Porsche and Lotus Elan's driving aound by old guys with scarves and leather caps-not V-8 Champ cars turning 17,000 RPM for hours on end. The residents feel cheated. Most of the closest residents are pretty well off and have the money to take revenge.
It may sound like I am against the track, but I am really not. I think that Firebird and PIR need the competition, it's healthy for the sport of motor racing. On the other hand, even though I have high traces of Ultimate Four in my bloodstream, the last thing I want when having a nice BBQ in my back yard is the sound of some NECKcar driver trying to learn how to turn right all day long (and that could take awhile!). So I see the neighbor's plight. I see the track owners desire to offer some options for racers. But- I would have built it somewhere else. This is going to be the condensed version of Riverside Raceway told in months- not years.
AMPS is the best track in over 500 miles in ANY direction...bar none! It should be supported!
I have personally been there and you cannot hear the bikes from the street...and the closest home is almost mile away. When the street-legal cars are playing Auto-cross in the pits it is louder than the bikes on the track! When an F-16 jet takes off during a track day you can't hear yourself think let alone here ANY vehicle on the track...I guess the local residents will want that closed down too!
QuoteAMPS is the best track in over 500 miles in ANY direction...bar none! It should be supported!
I have personally been there and you cannot hear the bikes from the street...and the closest home is almost mile away. When the street-legal cars are playing Auto-cross in the pits it is louder than the bikes on the track! When an F-16 jet takes off during a track day you can't hear yourself think let alone here ANY vehicle on the track...I guess the local residents will want that closed down too!
I live two and a half miles from LACR and I can hear the bikes and the cars. It's not noise but I can hear it, in fact it's music to my ears. That is the fact that gets missed, these folks don't want to hear it or even know thats it's there.
At laguna the limmit is 92db, I have blown the meter with a 96db on a stock ZX6R. I have been told by the manager they get noise calls when no event is running, trucks or bikes on the road to Monterey.
Bill Huth had the ultmate solution, When the city started making about the noise he had the track declaired an historic monument. end of discusion. That wount work for AMP but the db limits is very sharp sword that could end it for the track in the wrong hands.
Will