Mat-Su

A different kind of pit stop: Neighbors object to Butte racetrack's planned gravel pit

BUTTE -- Sarah and Klas Schock knew there was a racetrack nearby when they bought property just off the Old Glenn Highway in 2002.

The Schocks adjusted to the roaring dragsters of Alaska Raceway Park, Alaska's premier drag racing destination. On some summer weekends, thousands of people are drawn to the quarter-mile track, with its Pioneer Peak backdrop.

The problem, the Schocks say, is the gravel pit and asphalt plant that racetrack owners Earl and Karen Lackey now want to put next door and for which they are seeking a permit.

The Schocks did their homework before they bought, Sarah Schock said in May. They thought the spruce and birch stand where the gravel pit is planned was supposed to stay forested to act as a noise buffer between the track and the neighborhood off Julie Marie Circle where they live.

More than 130 homeowners live within a half-mile of the area. An infuriated group of residents says the Matanuska-Susitna Borough dropped the ball when it came to protecting that so-called buffer.

"We haven't slept for two months," Schock said.

Expansion plans

The Lackeys say everything they plan follows borough rules.

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They proposed the gravel extraction and portable asphalt plant to pave a racing oval next year. Remaining gravel would be sold to recoup oval construction costs and then some, given the proposed end date for extraction is 2024 and the family company's borough permit application is for 714,000 cubic yards.

The new track would become the second paved oval in Alaska, after one in Fairbanks. The Raceway Park track opened in 1964; the Lackeys bought it in 1994. They co-own it with their daughter and have built a devoted following. Earl Lackey, who drives a bright yellow Chevy Monte Carlo with "YLAJKT" plates, looks decades younger than his 70s when he starts talking about cars.

"We have a dream that this would be a motor sports park, and this is part of that happening," Karen Lackey said in an interview late last month.

The buffer that's such an issue? The borough never required it, they say.

No limits

The gravel pit is proposed for 17 acres of a 27-acre parcel the Lackeys bought from the state about 12 years ago. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources at the time did instruct the couple to try to buy the 27 acres from the borough as a condition of a much larger state land purchase.

The Lackeys bought the 155 acres beneath the track from the state in a noncompetitive "preference" sale that, among other conditions, included a provision to "pursue purchase" of that 27 acres "as a vegetative sound and visual buffer," according to a 2000 letter signed by former Division of Mining, Land and Water Chief Dick Mylius. The provision was added at the request of the Butte Community Council over noise concerns.

But the Mat-Su Borough Assembly in 2001 instead set aside a nearby 185-acre borough-owned parcel to act as a buffer along with public recreational lands and designated the 27 acres as "general purpose" lands.

The Lackeys bought the property in 2003 with no deed restrictions, according to Susan Lee, the borough planner handling the racetrack gravel case. Lee is recommending the track owners get the permit they need to start work.

The family had the 27-acre parcel appraised by the state in 2002 for just under $30,000 -- a little more than $1,000 an acre -- with no limits on the title, Earl Lackey said.

"None," Lackey said two weeks ago as he got the track ready for a busy Memorial Day weekend. "We own the property. We paid the appraised value on it. And we bought it without restrictions on it."

Commission weighs decision

The conflict in a borough with little zoning came to a head at a May 18 planning commission meeting. The commission must approve a conditional-use permit to allow the gravel operation proposed by the Lackey family firm, Butte Land Co., to proceed.

Neighbors of the racetrack told the commission they tolerated weekend noise and traffic for years. Opponents said a gravel pit and asphalt plant at the track, however, would bring more traffic, noise and potential health problems from the asphalt plant. They also say it would pose a threat to local property values, shallow drinking water wells and salmon in Bodenburg Creek 500 feet away.

There are already two relatively new gravel pits in the area, several Butte residents told the commission.

Jillian Ling grew up not far from the track on Sullivan Road. People got used to the roar of the track, Ling testified at the hearing, but the truck traffic is another thing.

"I can't let my son play in my parents' yard anymore because there's so many gravel trucks going up and down the road at 40 mph," she said, crying as she spoke.

Gravel pit opponents also presented a May 15 letter from DNR Commissioner Mark Myers in response to a request for clarification on the 27 acres.

The department did want the Lackeys to buy the 27 acres and keep it as a buffer strip, Myers confirmed. But if the family chooses to modify that use now, the letter states, "DNR does not have any authority to review, approve, or disapprove of such action."

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That's up to the borough, he said.

Based on the letter, the commission voted to delay until June 15 a decision on a conditional-use permit the Lackeys need to start the gravel operation.

'Gorgeous gravel'

Lackey can't mine gravel on the 155 acres that include the drag racing track because of state restrictions, he said. That's why he's pursuing the operation on the property identified as a buffer.

Lackey contends that the 10-foot berms the borough is requiring for the gravel operation will provide more noise protections than the buffer parcel provides now. Other conditions on the proposed borough permit application include operating hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. Saturday, April through October. The permit requires contractor Pruhs Construction to stop excavation 5 feet above the water table. Excavation is planned as deep as 30 feet.

It's possible the portable asphalt plant could continue to operate at the track past the oval construction phase if Pruhs has local road contracts in the area, according to the permit.

Showing the partly built oval in May, Lackey said his Butte Land Co. would be forced to buy gravel from another pit if the borough denied his permit.

"We've got some gorgeous gravel here," he said, gesturing at the cobbles at the edge of the oval. "I'd hate to have to go someplace else to get it."

The Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission will reopen the public hearing on the gravel extraction permit application at its next meeting, 6 p.m. June 15 in the Assembly chambers at the borough building in Palmer.

Zaz Hollander

Zaz Hollander is a veteran journalist based in the Mat-Su and is currently an ADN local news editor and reporter. She covers breaking news, the Mat-Su region, aviation and general assignments. Contact her at zhollander@adn.com.

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