Concord City Council members voted unanimously Monday to halt construction on a drag strip that's being built at the Lowe's Motor Speedway complex, according to the Charlotte Observer.
A surprising move since proponents claim the drag strip would bring high-paying jobs and millions of dollars in needed tax revenues to Concord.
I applaud the City Council members for choosing the health of people above the almighty dollar for once.
Speedway owner Bruton "I can do whatever I want" Smith in August announced plans to build the drag strip, saying then that racing would begin next spring. The land for the drag strip backs up to neighborhoods and businesses, including a hotel and convention center.
Smith Apparently thinks he's the king of the land around here and started grading his land about a week ago, without even applying for the required permits. The council's vote Monday changed the zoning on Smith's property to bar drag strips.
Last week, Smith said city officials "weren't doing enough" to back motor sports and threatened legal action if the council intervened in his project. If you've ever driven anywhere near Lowe's Motor Speedway during race week in May or October, you know Mr. Smith is full of it when he says that Concord isn't doing enough.
Residents can already see construction for the drag strip from their backyards.
The National Hot Rod Association, the organization that sanctions the nation's top drag racing series, has an "inaugural" race event scheduled for Sept 11-14 2008, according to insiders this would be on the new drag strip in Concord.
Not surprisingly, people who live in a subdivision that's not even a mile away from the proposed site aren't too happy to see this circus arrive in their backyards, the noise pollution being their main worry. Apparently Speedway Motorsports representatives don't want to provide data to show how loud noise from the drag strip would be.
If you want to hear for yourself, watch the following video after you turn up the speakers on your computer:
This is not the first time Bruton Smith thinks he can do whatever he wants to. In 2004 Mr. Smith wanted to build a new Parking lot for the Motor Speedway. The land he wanted to do this on was within the Mecklenburg County limits. To get Charlotte's approval to build a parking lot, Lowe's Motor Speedway agreed to protect hundreds of trees. Three months later, it bulldozed almost all of them.
Let's hope the City of Concord can stop him this time before he does any irreparable damage.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Putting people before money for a change.
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10 comments:
I guess some realtors are gonna get sued now for not having their sellers disclose the fact that a NASCAR track that has 40 cars race around it every day for two solid weeks a year was within a mile of the house these "angry homeowners" bought.
Aaron, you know as well as I do that the NASCAR races don't have anything to do with this. Of course everyone that lives there knows that there's a speedway close by.
The problem is that this drag strip first of all is much closer, will get used a lot more than the speedway and makes a hell of a lot more noise. There are a lot of reasons that it makes more noise: it's much closer, the cars make more noise, the drag strip is open and not buffered by "grandstands" around it and the drag strip will get used a lot more than the speedway.
I'm sure everyone that moved into those neighborhoods knew that there was a racetrack close by, they just weren't told that they would build a drag strip in their backyard after they moved in.
Yeah City Council! I have been to one and only one drag race at Englishtown NJ and the reason I have never gone back is the noise. Teeth jarring, ground shaking noise. The top fuel cars are SO loud OSHA requires drivers and the Pit crew to wear ear protection and there are many vendors at these races selling it to the general public. We only used cotton balls and it was not good enough. My ears were ringing for days after. Bruton, stick with turning left at your Speedway. That's loud enough, but at least those cars are always heading the right (I mean left) way...
Thierry, I linked to this post in my post on the issue...
By the by, is your name correctly pronounced "Tea-erry"?
I noticed that folks here in the states pronounce Thierry Henry's name as "Theory" and in other countries it's announced as
"Tea-erry"
Just a mindless question...
Not mindless at all.
The correct pronunciation of Thierry would be tea-erry like you said.
Judging by your last name you might have quite a piece of European in yourself as well. But I guess everyone here does, except when you're Native American.
You're correct, I'm 100% Scotch Irish. And no, that's not an oxymoron. Most folks think it's half and half but they're wrong...
My last name comes from the old Scottish Surname MacBrayne but somehow my line got reduced to being associated with janitorial implements...
dang... why didn't they turn it into McBrain? That would have a certain super hero quality to it :-)
The buyers of these homes knew all to well that the speedway property was literally next door when they purchased. Now, let me ask you this, if you purchased a home near a landfill, chicken processing plant, or a waste treatment facility would you not consider that expansion could happen? If not then you are a moron. In closing, the City of Concord may want to reconsider and tuck tail. Must be worried about the Council seats, however you may want to worry about the other thousands and thousands of homeowners that do not want their taxes to be raised because of lost revenue and taxes that the speedway brings to this area.
Call me very naive, but I would like to think that I live in a country where being filthy rich doesn't give you a license to act like a total @ss. Mr. Smith thinks he can do whatever he wants, when he wants.
If I build something I need a permit, so does Bruton Smith. If he thinks he's somehow better than me, I have a serious problem with that.
Mr. "Jonathan", judging by your "moron" comment it seems you have learned manners from Bruton himself. I'm pretty sure the City Council members didn't base their vote on the fact that they're "worried about their seats". Out of the 8 members only 2 are in a race this year where they have any opposition. The vote on Monday was unanimous.
Yes, the buyers knew about the speedway and no one is against the speedway. They just weren't told they would have a noisy drag strip in their backyard.
From what I've heard people living there might not even be totally opposed to a drag strip, if they only knew what exactly is going to happen there.
Mr. Smith refuses to come with numbers regarding the noise level and also doesn't want to say how much that drag strip will be used.
Instead he wants to do whatever he damn well pleases and if he doesn't get it he mopes and whines.
I thought I had left High School about 20 years ago, but apparently age doesn't limit one acting like
a school yard bully.
Bruton Smith may someday let the Concord Aldermen get off their knees. Now, what do you think about how the Dem's and Rino's are giving away the city and county to the Speedway?. How dumb do you have to be not to know that Bruton would not take it lying down that the aldermen tried to the change the rules after all of the years Smith has been pulling the strings.
You said : "I applaud the City Council members for choosing the health of people above the almighty dollar for once.
Speedway owner Bruton "I can do whatever I want" Smith in August announced plans to build the drag strip, saying then that racing would begin next spring." Are they now choosing the health of the people over the almighty dollar? Me thinks that the people are going to be hit once more in pocketbook to do what Smith wants.
Why have you not been outraged by the recent actions of the aldermen and now the county commissioners to do exactly what Smith wants? Looks like money wins again.
Several years ago when Bruton was going thru a divorce, the common joke around Concord was "who would get the Concord aldermen in the settlement." Looks like we now know who got them. It also appears that the settlement is now going to cost Cabarrus County taxpayers $75M.
I think it is time to divorce the aldermen for their stupidity in thinking they could change the rules.
I look forward to your comments on this issue.
Ian Wright
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