Over 1,700 comments to the CBC article, many opposed and horrified.
The racetrack project is about 4 km from Rosebud. The noise will be horrific, amplified by the steep coulee walls. Encana/Ovintiv illegally frac’d Rosebud’s drinking water aquifers in 2004, enabled by authorities. I read the original EIA for this racetrack, years ago. In it, the super rich will pay a fortune to pipeline water from Carbon, about 35 km away. I guess they don’t want to peel the paint off their expensive cars or burn off any body parts with toxic frac water.
Comment by a neighbouring resident:
Track is pure stupidity from day one. Roads even Hwy 9 are not in great shape as this projected crush of 1800 cars leaves Calgary everyday for “200 days”.
Comment by a frequent visitor to Rosebud:
Ugh, I read the late Feb. article and was horrified. What a bunch of rich, idiotic wankers, disconnected from reality. The opposition is fierce; I hope it’s successful.
Kenney will pay for all of it, if they can get the race cars to run on coal from destroyed mountaintops.
Top comment at the CBC:
‘developers also have to pave the road leading to the site, which would cost about $15 million. Zelazo is hopeful the provincial government may cover that cost.’ I expect they know it will cost much more than that. The roads to the site are treacherous when wet because of bentonite clay, and swell, slump and heave, often. The original deal with the rich noise-makers and the two counties was that the racers pay to pave the roads, taxpayers pay to maintain them. Slick betrayal. The maintenance costs will be sky high, will likely quickly cost more than the original paving.
How about No?
I’m tired of these developers thinking it’s no big deal for tax payers to pay for their plans. If this is such a great idea, then pay for everything themselves. There are much better places to spend $15 million than on a private investment ‘opportunity’
Dalton Forest:
Reply to @Ivan Nano: Alberta will come to value its pristine places only when they are gone. I am sure that Kenney will put the short term enrichment priorities of already wealthy doctors over the long term integrity of the provinces now dwindling environment. His approach to climate mitigation will finish it off.
Tim Hopper:
Reply to @Ivan Nano: agreed, but this government’s war room strategy is to prioritize fossil fuel. Racing cars in a circle over and over burns a lot of gas and oil, and Cons cheerlead it to the max, despite the terrible pollution. Doctors are supposed to care about health. This must be a rogue group.
My fav is by Jeremy Kemp:
This sounds like a very bad investment by people with more money and toys than brains.
Brian Carlson:
I’m a NASCAR and short track race fan and have been since the 60’s but this is just plain straight up abuse by a select group of the entitled. Shut ’em down.
Farmers chuckled Good old Harper’s club on the CBC Board. What a rude headline. The racing rich and our betraying counties might have chuckled, but impacted area residents, including farmers, did not. when doctors bought this rural land for a racetrack — but they aren’t laughing now, $500M racing facility proposed for river valley, but local opposition persists by Kyle Bakx, CBC News, Feb 24, 2021
When a group of seven doctors bought a parcel of land in a remote river valley in Alberta more than 15 years ago to build a racetrack, farmers in the area could only chuckle in disbelief.
They found it impossible to imagine race cars skidding around multiple tracks on a plot of land in their secluded part of the Prairies, which rarely attracts visitors on the gravel roads that wind through the deep valley.
What may have seemed like a farfetched idea at the time is now much closer to reality, as those doctors hope to break ground on the $500-million racing resort this summer.
Badlands Motorsports Resorthas said it has all of its permits in place So what? Encana/Ovintiv was granted permits to frac hundreds of gas wells many times in fresh water zones, as were countless other companies. A permit from any agency in Alberta to abuse the environment, listed species and communities, does not make it right, but just needs to raise more investment before the first phase of the complex can be built near Rosebud, about 100 kilometres east of Calgary.
However, the process hasn’t been easy and local opposition remains.
Dozens of farmers who were skeptical all those years ago have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and other expenses in their battle to stop the project from proceeding. Their latest salvo includes a Federal Court challenge asking for Ottawa to intervene and stop the development to protect a threatened bird species.
New racing venue
In 2005, Calgary radiologist Dr. Jay Zelazo and some of his colleagues in the medical field came up with the idea to build a track to race street-legal vehicles, since they enjoyed driving at high speeds and the only track near the city was struggling to stay afloat. Race City Speedway eventually closed in 2011. If the rich doctors had any sense and compassion, they would have invested in Race City and kept it operating; if they had any economic sense, they’d see their project is sure to be a major money loser and fail (just like frac’ing), without massive corporate welfare from governments and ignorant investors.
They chose the property near Rosebud since there were few other parcels of land on the market that were the appropriate size.
The early concept grew over time to include four tracks, a hotel, residential development, go-kart track and other facilities. The Badlands Motorsports Resort could employ as many as 200 people.
“There’s so many vehicles and people with vehicles, they just cannot use them for their potential. I mean … that’s what this idea is, is safe track driving,” said James Zelazo, Jay’s father, who is the project’s chief financial officer.
The first phase would involve constructing one track and temporary buildings. The cost would be about $30 million, said Zelazo. The developers also have to pave the road leading to the site, which would cost about $15 million. Zelazo is hopeful the provincial government may cover that cost.
So far, the group has raised about $5 million, he said. About 250 people, mostly locals, have each already made a $1,000 deposit toward a potential membership, he said.
‘This is private land,’ says race track developer
The racetrack could provide a boost for tourism in the area, which includes the Royal Tyrrell Museum, home to one of the world’s largest displays of dinosaurs.
“I think this is an opportunity for a different segment of the population to come and enjoy this area and, if it gets built like the picture that I’m looking at indicates, I think it’ll be a real jewel in Alberta,” said Darryl Drohomerski, chief administrative officer of the town of Drumheller, which is located about 35 kilometres northeast of Rosebud.
The Alberta government did not respond to requests for comment about the proposed project.
Entrenched opposition
The local opposition is easy to see as many “No race track” signs are visible on fence posts throughout the area.
Wendy Clark is one of the farmers spearheading the effort to halt the development. She has about 800 hectares of grain fields in the region.
“If you live here,” she said, “you kind of instinctively come to the realization that it’s your job to take care of this river valley.”
She said she’s worried about the impact on the land, the water and the wildlife.
“We’re all just so angry,” she said, calling the project an “intrusive development.”
She and other landowners have objected to the racetrack to every level of government. So far, they have only been able to slow down the process, not stop it.
At the provincial Environmental Appeals Board, Clark and others argue the racetrack will cause irreparable damage to the environment, since the developer plans to infill two wetlands and modify three others. The appeal process is ongoing.
The farmers also want the federal government to take action to halt the development to protect the bank swallow population. The small, brown and white songbirds were designated as a threatened species in 2013 under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA).
The bank swallow has suffered a “severe long-term decline amounting to a loss of 98% of its Canadian population over the last 40 years,” the SARA website says.
As a threatened species, the bank swallow is protected by the federal government.
The landowners filed an application to the Federal Court of Canada last year to force Ottawa to prepare a recovery plan for the birds and designate critical habitat areas. A date for a virtual hearing has been set for late April.
“You’re putting a racetrack in between the nesting sites of these bank swallows and their foraging territory. So, what do you think is going to happen to the bank swallows?” said Clark.
VIDEO: Why farmers oppose the racetrack project:
Farmers want to protect land, water and wildlife by opposing race track
In a statement to CBC News, Environment Canada said the development of a recovery strategy for the bank swallow is ongoing. That strategy will identify the threats to the species and critical habitat. However, the government said the land-use authorization for the proposed racetrack is a provincial matter. Typical cowards, our feds.
Badlands Motorsports Resort maintains it has the right to move ahead with the project because the property is private land. The river valley will be protected and the wetlands are often dry, said JamesZelazo. How will the river valley be protected? Those wetlands are also often full and are vital habitat for many species, and help to prevent damaging flooding in heavy rains which are becoming more frequent because of climate change. Destroying or altering them is terrible and unforgivable.
The bank swallows have nests across the road from the racetrack development, but Zelazo said he hasn’t seen any of the birds himself, so he doesn’t know if they still inhabit the area. Perhaps he’s too invasive for the birds to show themselves to him. The track noise will drive many birds out, in a world where humans are wiping out birds at a terrifying pace. The least these rich men can do is build their horror shit show where threatened species and people will be not harmed.
The landowners who oppose the project made an offer to purchase the land from the racetrack developer in 2013, but Zelazo said his group wasn’t interested.
If the farmers continue to oppose the project and cause further financial costs and delays, he may consider launching legal action to recover those expenses, he said. Nasty bully! Nice way to engage the harmed. Legal threats are the way of the rich because they know Canada’s (especially Alberta’s) judicial industry serves them, rapists, pedophiles, and dirty politicians serving the rich.
A separate $25-million racetrack development north of Calgary was supposed to open last year, but has also faced delays.At least $300 Billion is needed to clean up the raping of Alberta by the oil patch and many families are starving only to see two racetracks wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and destroying vital habitat? Just more of the same by Alberta cavemen.
Refer also to:
Sounds of Silence: The Extinction Crisis Is Taking Away the Earth’s Music
Is Noise Pollution the Next Big Public-Health Crisis? Research shows that loud sound can have a significant impact on human health, as well as doing devastating damage to ecosystems.
Noise is now seen as a factor in a range of ailments, including heart disease. Illustration by Kati Szilagyi
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Comment sent by a BC resident:
Hilarious German Insults You Should Start Using Immediately
Numbers 5, 6, 7 and 11 are accurate descriptions of race track doctors and Alberta Cons.
5. Arsch mit ohren
A “butt with ears”—or, put simply, a complete idiot.
6. Evolutionsbremse
An “evolutionary brake” is an unintelligent person whose very existence on Earth hinders the advancement of the human species, so to speak.
7. Einzeller
In a similar vein, this word means a “single-cell organism.”
11. Kotzbrocken
A “lump of puke.”
#6 is particularly applicable to Murray Klippenstein and his fellow StopSOPs.
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This post is for Sharleen.