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socal's only remaining dragstrip is now closed

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  • #31
    that place is done - head east

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    • #32
      My observations from being in mining and there always being permit issues and such, if you have the local government on your side you are at least 75% of the way there.

      Just for the heck of it I googled their current permit. 110 pages! Somewhat interesting reading though. The interesting data part seems to start around page 44. Interestingly the max limits for noise for the speed way are often exceeded even when there is nothing going on at the speedway. The decible contour lines are pretty interesting for the various types of dragsters. Not that I'm going to do anything about it, I should go look up what exactly what part the appeal was on.



      This chart kinda cracked me up, they litteraly track the noise time by how many runs by how long the run is
      TABLE 2-3
      WEEKEND OPERATIONS (OVAL AND DRAG STRIP)
      Car Type Runs/Day Time (seconds)/Run Daily Hours Annual Hours
      Alcohol Dragsters 32 6 0.05 5.5
      Gas Dragsters 240 15 1.00 104.0
      Club Racers n/a n/a 4.00 416.0
      Professional Event n/a n/a 4.00 24.0

      The approved permanent permit of the drag strip in 2008. An appeal was made then but denied at the time.
      Revision 9 (Relocated Dragstrip) – This revision allowed the permanent relocation and operation of the
      drag strip to Parking Lot Nos. 6 and 8. No alcohol, nitromethane, jet, or rocket powered classes of
      vehicles are allowed to operate unless additional documentation demonstrating compliance with the
      established Speedway noise standards is submitted to and approved by the County. An Initial Study in
      support of a Mitigtated Negative Declaration was prepared for this revision. The revision was approved
      by the County Planning Commission on July 6, 2007. An appeal to the decision led to a revised Initial
      Study, and the appeal was denied by the Board of Supervisors in December 2008.
      Interesting.
      Aside from Speedway operations, ambient noise levels near the Speedway are generated by railroad
      activity along the northern side of the Speedway; traffic noise from nearby streets; stationary noise from
      nearby commercial and industrial operations; and other non-Speedway related-events. In 1995, these
      noise sources generated noise levels exceeding a maximum (Lmax) of 90 A-weighted decibels (dBA) at a
      location 550 feet from the Speedway property line, prior to the construction and operation of the
      Speedway. After construction of the Speedway, as monitored in 2006, these sources also generated noise
      levels in excess of 110 dBA Lmax without operation of the Speedway at various locations, including
      those located 550 feet and more from the Speedway property line.
      As will be discussed further in Section
      4.2, noise monitoring results from 2006 and 2007 reported that maximum noise levels at the Speedway
      oval ranged from 72 to 85 dBA and from 54 dBA to 100 dBA at the drag strip, depending on the type of
      drag vehicle run (Gordon Bricken & Associates, October 2008).
      Noise levels in the project area, without Speedway operations, were measured in 2006 at three (3) locations
      on three (3) separate days. Noise measurements are shown in Table 4.2-5, Ambient Noise Levels (Without
      Speedway Operations). As shown, the L50 (i.e., noise levels exceeded 50 percent of the time) ranged from
      48 to 58 dBA and the Lmax ranged from 65 to 116 dBA. The readings show that the L50 noise levels met
      the current PD noise standard; however, the Lmax exceeded the standard.
      Escaped on a technicality.

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      • #33
        Originally posted by Bob Holmes View Post
        Its not about fighting in the courts, anymore. Its about revising the portions of the EIR that were found deficient and having the City readopt the EIR. However losing the court fight will mean some large payouts for the plaintiffs attorneys, and significant expenses for the revisions to the EIR. Even after readoption, they can get sued again.

        Its a muli-million dollar issue.
        I'm not sure I'd read this as a damages action so beyond the possibility of attorney's fees its not clear that there would be payouts to anybody.

        It is a different question as to whether the track will pursue getting and ammeded EIR as a basis for revised operating permit related to the dragstrip, or file an appeal seeking to overturn the judge's ruling. This goes to County as well as City given the statement below.

        The rumor mill had this as being mostly driven by one guy who owns and lives in an upholstry shop. Same rumor mill had reported them close to settlement of some kind on restrictions after they had dropped even the 10.5 outlaw class cars from the NMCA event last Fall.

        Text of press release below.

        A Superior Court has suspended operation of the Auto Club Dragway. The suspension results from a successful challenge of a San Bernardino County sound standard by a group of concerned residents. San Bernardino County officials had approved an amendment to the County Sound Standard in 2010 to accommodate louder sound arising from races at the Dragway. The Superior Court found that the underlying Environmental Impact Report which the County relied on to approve the sound standard amendment was not sufficient.


        We are currently reviewing the court ruling and evaluating our options moving forward. We hope to have more detailed information about our future operations at the Dragway soon.
        Drag Week 2006 & 2012 - Winner Street Race Big Block Naturally Aspirated - R/U 2007 Broke DW '05 and Drag Weekend '15 Coincidence?

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        • #34
          Bill, I just got through paying my share of Plaintiff's fees for an EIR lawsuit. Plaintiff's attorney requested and recieved $1.7 million. We figured he had to be working 16 hour days, 7 days a week in order to run up that bill, but it was awarded by the court. I've also paid for revised EIRs and I pay an attorney $750 an hour to make sure that the revisions should pass muster, but you can never tell what is going to happen once you get to court. In another case, we paid out over $900,000 in plaintiff's attorney's fees when the court held that an aesthetics issue was in fact an environmental impact. Than we paid for the revisions to the EIR and, again, our $750 an hour attorney to review the EIR.

          I'm not talking about damages. Those are the real costs of dealing with this kind of litigation.

          We just paid off an attorney, over $125,000, in order to have him agree not to file an inadequate EIR suit. Just to get him to go away.

          Again, no damages, just to get him to go away.

          I feel for these guys, you can do everything by the book, but if you go to court, its a crapshoot.
          I'm still learning

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          • #35
            Interesting stuff, that kind of suit is pretty unlikely here in Washington. Because while a entity or person can challenge a EIS, for violations of the GMA or SEPA; once the use permit is issued, there are no further challenges available. There can be citations for violation of the permit, but those are all public actions (no private right of action.)
            Doing it all wrong since 1966

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            • #36
              We typically wait until the filing period ends before we begin any work. Usually 60 days after the approval of the EIR and the proper paperwork is filed with the State.

              Plaintiff's are limited to any concerns that they've placed in the record during the consideration of the EIR. Usually you'll get either a shotgun letter placed in the comments to the admin draft of the EIR, or someone stands at the podium during the hearing and reads a litany of possible defects.
              I'm still learning

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