http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_3974750

Auto racing is the least of my interests but this article has some sad parallels for those of us, (like myself), who fly from country airports in the outskirts of cities, and the consequences of development.
Are outlying towns in such dire straights that they’ll allow people to buy or build homes, then dictate to the natives what businesses they can and can’t run? The business that’s been there decades must be literally steamrolled over for the super cash engines of Wal-Marts and Best Buys?

Seems pretty simple that if you buy a house next to a racetrack, you should EXPECT TO BE LIVING NEXT TO A RACETRACK!

Having just driven back from camping in Wyoming I see the multitude of big box stores rapidly completed and dropped into a sea of asphalt as if they fell from the sky that way. I love living in an economically prosperous state, but it’s sad that 10 years ago the city in this article was considered “country”, and now I have to travel 100 miles north of Denver and west to Wyoming to truly be void of sprawl… How could anyone be proud of living in Dacono after it’s graded and enveloped by car dealerships, warehouse stores, and obligatory endless row of chain restaurants? Where’s the local activists?

Left in growth’s dust
Racetracks often face losing battle when in path of development

By Andy Vuong
Denver Post Staff Writer
Dacono, Colorado
On any given summer Saturday night, up to 8,400 people - double the population of this small farming town 30 miles north of Denver - gather at Colorado National Speedway to enjoy the full-throttle action of stock car racing.

But the action may screech to a halt because the 3/8-mile paved oval track, a fixture here for more than 40 years, is in the path of the town’s growth.

A 145-lot residential community recently crept its way onto the crest of a hill about a mile south of the racetrack. On nearby Frontage Road, the main traffic artery between the track and Interstate 25, a Furniture Row shopping center is slated to open in the coming weeks.

“Speculation has run rampant as to if, or when, that track may give way to development,” said Jerry Van Dyke, chairman of the board of the Colorado Motorsports Hall of Fame, based in Aurora.

Despite the rising popularity of pro and amateur motor sports, some racetracks in Colorado and across the country have shuttered in recent years as new homes and businesses sprout up around them.

“When the track is in the middle of the growth, eventually the noises and traffic associated with those events become problems for people moving into the area,” said Jon Lee, executive vice president of Community Development Group, a Boulder company that bought 500 acres near Colorado National in 1998.

Rocky Mountain National Speedway and Second Creek closed last year after Commerce City refused to renew their annual use permits because of noise concerns. Rocky Mountain was a dirt track, and Second Creek was an asphalt road course. Both sites are under contract to be sold to Buffalo Highlands LLC, a Denver-based real estate development firm. Both sites have been rezoned for residential use.

Meanwhile, two new racetracks on the Front Range have been built or are planned near airports, where noise and traffic concerns are less of an issue.

Sutton Motorsports, owner of the Grand Prix of Denver, has plans to build an asphalt racetrack on 320 acres near Front Range Airport in Watkins that would open in 2007 or 2008, said Rob Johnson, an executive vice president with the company.

The Track at Centennial, a go-cart track on 16 acres at Centennial Airport, opened in March.

“We chose the airport so that we’d be able to operate and not worry about the noise issue,” owner Jim Keesling said. “Noise really has nothing to do with what we’re doing, but the perception of noise has everything to do with it.”

Noise in Dacono

Dacono Mayor Wade Carlson said he has received noise complaints from residents and developers about Colorado National and “there will be more.”

More than 10,000 residential lots are ready to be developed in Dacono, and the town is projecting its population to grow from roughly 4,000 to 30,000 over the next decade.

The town can institute stricter noise ordinances, but none are planned right now, Carlson said.

Dacono receives thousands of dollars a month in tax revenue on racetrack tickets - which are $10 for an adult - and vendor sales. Lee, the developer who owns property near the track, said he expects Colorado National to face the same fate as Rocky Mountain and Second Creek.

“The noise is becoming a concern,” Lee said. “There are noise standards that the city has. I’m sure that the racetrack is pushing the envelope there.”

Doug Greer, co-owner of Colorado National, said the track adheres to the town’s noise ordinance and tries to close by 10 p.m. every Saturday, the only day it holds races from May through September.

Currently, Dacono has an ordinance that restricts loud noises, such as those from race car engines, after 11 p.m., said city administrator Karen Cumbo.

She said the city doesn’t have a decibel-level restriction. Greer said the cars at Colorado National stay under 95 decibels. A busy city street is about 90 decibels.

An issue nationwide

Noise and traffic concerns prevented Larry Miller, owner of pro basketball’s Utah Jazz, from building a motor-sports park in Mead, about 40 miles north of Denver. Miller wanted to triple the size of Mountain View Racetrack, a small course in Mead.

But in 2001, the town denied his request to annex additional land for the expansion because of noise and traffic issues, said town manager Michael Friesen.

Miller took his plans to Utah. In April, he opened a 500-acre Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City.

In some cases, rising property values, and not noise concerns, can drive a racetrack out of a community. That happened near San Diego and Miami, where tracks were sold to residential and commercial developers.

And it almost happened in Morrison with Bandimere Speedway in the late 1990s.

A group of developers offered “a huge price” for the track’s 160-acre parcel, said president John Bandimere Jr.

Bandimere accepted the deal, but the group later backed out.

Bandimere Speedway, which hosts drag races, remains in operation. Operating May through September throughout the week, it closes at 9 p.m. on most nights and no later than midnight on weekends. Once they ran all night long. No more.

“We have been in this location before there was even paved roads,” Bandimere said. “There were no homes, and some nights we ran all night long until the sun came up. As things came in and homes started to engulf the area … it was necessary for us to change as much as we could to be part of the environment.”

Staff writer Andy Vuong can be reached at 303-820-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com