SAVE Road Atlanta!

[wildhorsesracing]

a developer has contracted to purchase a tract of property directly adjacent to Road Atlanta. The property line is 50 feet from the actual race track along Turn 9 backstretch. 9 acres will be reserved for commercial development and the remaining will be developed into High Density Residential called "Park at Riverside".

They are encouraging all to send a letter or email to the Hall County Commissioners supporting our urgent need to deny the residential portion of this rezoning. The project is up for review June 19th at the Hall County Planning Commission meeting.[/b]

Hall County Commissioners:
Hall County Website (http://www.hallcounty.org/gov/commissioners.asp)
Tom Oliver
Chairman
[email protected]
Deborah Lynn
Commissioner District 1
[email protected]
Billy Powell
District 2
[email protected]
Seve Gailey
District 3
[email protected]
Deborah Mack
District4
[email protected]
Jim Shuler
County Administrator
[email protected]


Contact Brian Skuza, General Manager Road Atlanta 770/967-6143 or at [email protected] if you have questions or comments.

[jmark]

Amazing. Developer buys land & builds houses by a race track. Then makes demands on the track! People are idiots.

[x-ring]

Well, what do you expect, all the land around the airport was already developed :wacko:

[bldn10]

Well, we've seen it coming over the last 10 years - civilization creeping closer and closer. And I'm sure that Panoz has seen it too; so if it is a threat, or he really cares long-term about the track, why would he not have bought the property himself? One would think he would have been buying up all the adjacent property, not like it's a terrible investment anyway. He could develop it into a motorsport-oriented property. Elan at Trackside. Put covenants in the deeds protecting the track. I have to wonder if the track has worked out as he intended, and perhaps now even he forsees residential in the future. (This is obviously pure speculation on my part so no need to point that out.)

When I was in law school we studied a case from Arizona in which a housing development sprang up next to a hog farm. After awhile the residents complained and sued to shut the farm down and I believe it went to the Supreme Court. The Court held that the residents were barred because they had "come to the nuisance." In other words, if you buy a house knowing that it is next to something you don't want to live next door to, tough shit! :bash_1_: I gather that the world is more protective of stupid people these days.

[apexingsupra]

I saw this information on another forum. Is it Jim Pantas who posted? If so thanks Jim.

I talked to one of the board of directors with the Atlanta Region to confirm. Yes it is true. While some say you can't fight City Hall, Anyone who cares one bit about Road Atlanta needs to get active. I plan on doing so. I am expecting to get a copy of a letter that explains what is going on. There may be a county commission meeting later this month where it will be important for the commisioners to know just how many people support Road Atlanta, what a national "institution" it is which can not be repeated on another piece of dirt, and how much money people spend visiting Road Atlanta with hotels, eateries, etc.

People need to be vocal about it. I plan on helping spread the word throughout SEDIV and nationally. That is my favorite track and I have been going there since the mid-70s.

Barry H.

[JeffYoung]

Please do not let this place get Riversided.

[Catch22]

FYI...
SaveRoadAtlanta.com is available if somebody with money and web savvy wants to kick that off (I'm eliminated from both criteria).

Spread the word.
Start a petition.
Present to Hall county.
Pray.

[CDS]

Or more accurately, this country protects those who yell loudest. As many people as possible need to make their voices heard, particularly those locally. Will Hall County officials give any weight to comments from those outside the area? I'm guessing those folks (me included) will need to emphasize how much money we spend in Hall County because of RA.

[Russ Myers]

Just ask the folks in Charlotte who used to race at Shuffletown Dragway. Way out in the sticks for years, then development took over. Now it's gone. And the local news does stories on the rise of street racing.

Russ

[Butch Kummer]

I don't mean to be the voice of doom, but get ready for the fact that Road Atlanta will not be there forever. Urban encroachment is here, taxpayers vote and all we do is spend money in town. The land is already worth more as a golf course than it generates as a race track even with three big money events each year (The Mitty, the Labor Day AMA races and the Petit - oh, and maybe the Drift event). At some point in time Don Panoz or his heirs will decide the take the money and run.

That said, we will do all we can to continue to run there as long as we can, which includes writing the various commissioners and urging them to vote against the residential development. But we're also looking at alternative venues for our events in the future as well.

I find it ironic the proposed development will have "Riverside" in it's name. Who says the racing gods have no sense of humor?

Butch Kummer

[BobsAuto]

I can't believe this. Look at what happened to Bridgehampton. Now Road Atlanta is in jeopardy. Why do developers not look at the potential that the racing industry brings to the area with regards to money with the pro races? Good luck to all down there in saving RA. Can us northerners write to the city offials?

[Domino]

While we try to save the existing ones we also need to support new ones like this:

http://www.firstcoastracing.com/

[iambhooper]

well, i know it was shut down for 25 years, but i sure am glad VIR is out in BFE! i honestly, don't see it being residentially developed in my life time. at some point, the way we are over populating the planet, sure, but not for a while.

i guess i need to plan a haul down to RA in the next year or two, so i can say i've driven it. compared to VIR, how technical is it?

hoop

[Catch22]

While we try to save the existing ones we also need to support new ones like this:

http://www.firstcoastracing.com/
[/b]

I know you have to work within the available boundries of the site, but my first impression of that track layout is that it will surpass CMP in unpopularity. And CMP is pretty damned unpopular.

Unless there are some hidden elevation changes and some serious turn banking that track will be a flowless, rythm-free, brake killing monster. SOMEBODY needs to understand that there is a reason the older tracks like VIR, Road Atlanta and Watkins Glen remain the most popular among drivers.
I don't understand the infatuation these days with hairpins and 90 degree turns. Its all stop-go-stop-go-stop-go. Sorry, I'm not a fan of that.

I apologize in advance for potentially leading this thread off track.

[kthomas]

I wouldn't be as worried about the new neighbors causing a row as much as I'd worry about Mr. Panoz suddenly changing his mind and wanting to turn the track into a wine grape pasteur or condo's. About as much likelyhood IMHO.

Doesn't hurt to do a little preemtive lobbying, but I see this going the way of the hog farm story. No problem.

[Chris Wire]

I wouldn't be as worried about the new neighbors causing a row as much as I'd worry about Mr. Panoz suddenly changing his mind and wanting to turn the track into a wine grape pasteur or condo's. About as much likelyhood IMHO.

Doesn't hurt to do a little preemtive lobbying, but I see this going the way of the hog farm story. No problem.
[/b]

Still gotta be careful and not let the opportunity pass you by. Usually when new property owners decide they have had enough of the nuisance they already knew was there, they can be relentless. And unfortunately, many times logic doesn't win the day.

Atlanta-based nationally-syndicated talk show host, Neal Boortz, has recounted the same story with the same circumstances, the exception being that the homeowners are railing against a local private airport. I have listened to him for over 3 years and the problem has been ongoing for that long and longer.

Like kthomas said, some preemptive groundwork laid now might reap bigger dividends later.

If anyone thinks that outsider letters would help, I'd be glad to chime in. Politicians just LOVE my letters.

[Greg Amy]

...i sure am glad VIR is out in BFE! i honestly, don't see it being residentially developed in my life time. [/b]

Be careful with that complacency.

When I first raced at Road Atlanta at the Runoffs I remember thinking how far out in the sticks it was, just like I do today about VIR. There was NOTHING out there, not many restaurants and really only one hotel within miles and miles (the Admiral Benbow). The drive from any other hotel or gathering area to the track was as rural as is it now at VIR.

That was 1988, less than twenty years ago.

I'm also a private pilot and aircraft owner, and I face these issues on that front too. We have lost tens of thousands of airports in this country to suburban encroachment, and the rate has not abated. Using tactics such as "we were there first" have had ZERO effect on the problem; in the end the interlopers win, either through financial enticement, changes in zoning regulations, and/or judicial action. The most effective program for protecting airports is the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's Airport Support Network. It is through advocacy and lobbying groups such as AOPA that many airports have been saved and pilots have been made aware of the problem. I'd strongly encourage you folks down there to take some time to review their programs and even give them a ring for information. The $35 (or whatever) I send to AOPA each year as a member is the best money I spend in aviation.

http://www.aopa.org/asn/

[Ron Earp]

I'm also a private pilot and aircraft owner, and I face these issues on that front too. We have lost tens of thousands of airports in this country to suburban encroachment, and the rate has not abated. Using tactics such as "we were there first" have had ZERO effect on the problem; in the end the interlopers win, either through financial enticement, changes in zoning regulations, and/or judicial action. The most effective program for protecting airports is the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's Airport Support Network. It is through advocacy and lobbying

http://www.aopa.org/asn/
[/b]

I'm an AOPA member as well and know what Greg says is the truth. Our flying club was located at Chapel Hill airport, which many of you in the NC area will know the location. The club had been there since 1961 and was called The Chapel Hill Flying Club. Eventually pressure from surrounding houses, that had been built in the 1980s and 1990s, plus the University pressure, pushed the club out and the field is essentially open to high dollar traffic nowadays. But no club or teaching goes on there.

Our club is still the Chapell Hill Flying Club, but is now located in Sanford. Good to be rid of that right patern runway anyhow.

Point is, I agree with Greg, winning these wars on who is first is pointless. It doesn't work. Not sure how to protect a race track since there is not a very active group who watches this for racers. Megs Field in Chicago got bulldozed by a bunch of thugs in the night, Road Atlanta might not suffer as graphic a fate but it too could go away easily with the way squeaky wheels get the grease in modern urban settings. The similarities between airports disappearing and the way race tracks might disappear are incredibly striking.

Ron

[charrbq]

Gee, I can remember going to Road Atlanta for the Runoffs in the early '80s when it was out in the boonies. Motels were over an hour away each night. In the past 10 years, I've been amazed at how the area has grown. Subdivisions are up each impassable hill and down each plunging valley...priced in figures of unobtainium. It's been coming. The ordinance against running engines before 8 and not between 10 and 12 on Sunday has been an early warning sign. Our noise is nothing compared to Lanier, across the street, but there's is only on Friday and Saturday night. Hopefully, the track will be saved. I doubt that my letter from Baton Rouge will even be looked at by someone from the Atlanta area, but I'll give it a shot.

[tom_sprecher]

I would like to heard what the realtor says to a potential home owner when they all catch a wiff of chicken $h!t that can prevail if the wind is not blowing in your favor. :blink:

[bhudson]

I'm quite familiar with the chicken farm smell and wish it were back. The problem now is that the smell is gone because the chicken farms near Road Atlanta been replaced by subdivisions.

[tom_sprecher]

They are still there or at least the smell was as of a couple of months ago. PU!

[tdw6974]

I wouldn't be as worried about the new neighbors causing a row as much as I'd worry about Mr. Panoz suddenly changing his mind and wanting to turn the track into a wine grape pasteur or condo's. About as much likelyhood IMHO.

Doesn't hurt to do a little preemtive lobbying, but I see this going the way of the hog farm story. No problem.
[/b]
Very often the present owner of such prime land becomes aware(somebody makes a God Awful wad of Money Offer) and zip away it goes. Don't Know Mr Panoz and it is obvious He has a love of the sport with all His ventures and support of Racing. Might just become toooo prime a spot to Hold on to. PS we have lots of Hog farms up here in the North Woods of PA and yes they have a very distinK AIR :D

[orlando_wrx]

Road Atlanta = Historical Landmark maybe?

[apexingsupra]

I sent this out to everone on my region's announce list. A lot of it is taken from Road Atlanta's letter to the Atlanta Region SCCA. If anyone wants to cut and paste to some other forum or email list any or all of this please feel free and I don't care if my name stays in the message.

ROAD ATLANTA’S EXISTENCE IS UNDER AN IMMEDIATE THREAT AND I ASK ALL SCCA MEMBERS TO IMMEDIATELY EMAIL, WRITE, OR CALL THE HALL COUNTY COMMISIONERS LISTED BELOW BEFORE JUNE 19TH TO LET THEM KNOW JUST HOW IMPORTANT ROAD ATLANTA IS TO THE MOTORSPORTS COMMUNITY AND TO REITERATE ITS POSITIVE ECONOMIC IMPACT ON HALL COUNTY. ACT NOW.



An Atlanta Developer has contracted to purchase a tract of property off of Highway 211 that is directly adjacent to Road Atlanta. In fact, the property line is fifty feet from the actual race track along the Turn 9 backstretch. Nine acres will be reserved for commercial development and the remaining acreage will be developed into HIGH DENSITY RESIDENTIAL. The project will be called the “Park at Riverside”.



Road Atlanta is one of the premier road racing circuits in North America if not the world. Its unique topography with its challenging elevation changes combined with a fast and flowing course design can not be duplicated on any other real estate. Since the 1970s Road Atlanta has operated with the protection of reasonable zoning that provided appropriate non-residential development around the track.



The current REQUEST TO CHANGE THE ZONING for this new project to allow residential development will no doubt lead to homeowner’s complaints, petitions for sound abatement or limited operating hours. This requested zoning change would seriously challenge Road Atlanta’s core business. Road Atlanta attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. According to Hall County’s own Visitor Bureau statistics, Road Atlanta contributes 53.5 MILLION DOLLARS a year to the Hall county economy alone. That is 27% of Hall County’s total tourism expenditures from visitors.



This project is up for review on JUNE 19TH with the Hall County Planning Commsion. Pleae help save an irreplaceable “institution” in Motorsports by contacting the Hall County Commissioners. If you have personally visited Road Atlanta, let them know how you spend your hard earned dollars in their county because of Road Atlanta.





Hall County Commissioners:
Hall County Website
Tom Oliver
Chairman
[email protected]
Deborah Lynn
Commissioner District 1
[email protected]
Billy Powell
District 2
[email protected]
Seve Gailey
District 3
[email protected]
Deborah Mack
District4
[email protected]
Jim Shuler
County Administrator
[email protected]







Barry Hair

Alabama Region SCCA Regional Executive