PALMER -- Matanuska-Susitna Borough officials have fast-tracked a proposal to make special racetrack laws apply borough-wide.
The accelerated plans are a response to Butte property owners who petitioned the borough to stop development of an oval track in their area.
Back-to-back public hearings at the Mat-Su Planning Commission and Assembly are scheduled Nov. 20 and 21 at 6:30 and 7 p.m., respectively, at the borough building, 350 E. Dahlia Ave.
Borough planners are accepting public comments until Nov. 9 on expanding the rules on racetrack development beyond the core area.
"This is clearly being fast-tracked," Mat-Su Borough Code Compliance officer Ken Hudson said Monday. "There are ways to shorten the process by concurrent scheduling."
Earl Lackey, president of Alaska Raceway Park, said the push to quickly expand the rules isn't necessary. Alaska Raceway Park runs a quarter-mile drag strip in the Butte. Lackey's group has applied for a permit to build in a flood plain and submitted plans for a paved, one-third-mile circular track, but those plans aren't being rushed, he said.
"I think that's part of the issue with trying to jam this thing through in a hurry is, they think we're going to run out and build this track," Lackey said. "If we wanted to, we could have built that track in July or August."
Hudson said the borough has fast-tracked new rules in the past, typically with "crisis du jour" issues. Accelerated scheduling happened a few years ago when rules aimed at blocking North Star Speedway's operations off Jensen Road were made. The effort didn't pay off: North Star operates under a grandfather clause that exempts it from those rules.
The proposed change would apply those core-area rules on racetrack development to anyone building a motor track anywhere in the borough. The laws require racetrack builders to prove that new tracks would fit into the existing community. Track owners must also reduce on- and off-track noise levels and, if necessary, upgrade roads to handle additional traffic. The law places strict limits on how motor sports affect nearby properties.
"Racetracks may not generate traffic, light, glare, noise, odor, smoke, electrical interference, vibration, or dust that causes a nuisance off the permitted site," one section states. No racetracks have tested the rules since they were adopted.
Lackey said he doesn't mind abiding by a racetrack ordinance. But this package of rules isn't right, he said.
"If they pass the ordinance as written, the Iron Dog -- it's history for this year, anyway, unless they make changes," he said. "It will practically eliminate any racing. There wouldn't be any snowmachine races or any ice races this winter for sure."
Mat-Su planning director Murph O'Brien said the legislation might change as the Planning Commission and Assembly review it. The public process may be extended, he said, if either body wants to reshape the rules. The aim isn't to prohibit Lackey or other groups from racing, he said, but to limit the impact on nearby property owners.
"What this is, is a conditional-use permit. It's not an ordinance banning anything," O'Brien said. "There are concerns from many areas of the borough. People are concerned with what say they have if somebody brings an activity that will be noisy and disrupt their lifestyle. The concept of conditional use is you're not saying 'no' to it. You're saying, 'Here are some conditions.' "
