I read an article about AMP some months back on the internet, can't remember
where that IMHO was fairly unbiased presentation of the facts of what was
going on from both sides. AFAIR it went something like this(from memory
don't pin me to the wall, I'm just trying to lend some insite!):
The wealthy racing enthusiast owner of the property, (and AXer I hear) which
was to become AMP applied to the local planning and zoning commission for
permission to build a paved road course on his land which was not an
approved use under the zoning. A special use permit was eventually granted
with a number of covenents and restrictions, such as it would be a private
use facility (a personal playground for the owner and a few of his friends),
there would be no permanent structures built, the maximum occupation would
be no more than 50 people at any given time, no formal racing would be done
there, and all vehicles using the facility would be street legal (muffled).
Instead, the owner boldly spent ~ $6.5M. building a major road racing
complex, complete with covered paddock, inspection sheds, headquarters
building, and a very large skidpad/AX pad, without any additional approvals,
not even building permits. To add insult to injury he then rented out the
track to major sanctioning bodies for national races including a Winston
West stock car road race(WW is a division of NASCAR that races stockcars
identical to Busch series cars, hardly street legal or muffled.), SCCA
races, and Superbikes, as well as AXs. The local government started
receiving noise complaints from as far as 6 miles from the track (It's a
very flat part of the country) and went to investigate during a major race.
They decided that this was far beyond the permitted use of the property. The
owner allegedly ignored their requests to dismantle the buildings and comply
with the use restrictions on street legal vehicles and occupancy
restrictions, and continued to rent out the track for races. It all came to
a head today with a board hearing and finally a unanamous vote for total
revocation of the special use permit, essentially locking the gate.
<Paul Harvey voice> ...and now you know the whole story.</PHV>
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Lowe" <mikelowe93@Houston.rr.com>
To: <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 8:20 PM
Subject: Re: Arizona Motorsports Park
> Boy am I curious to learn what happened. Please keep us updated.
> Perhaps other site owners and operators/renters can learn something from
> this.
>
>
> Best of luck to the AZ folks rearranging things at the last minute.
>
> Mike Lowe -- Houston Region SCCA
> 94 Miata Turbo (autox weapon)
> 03 Chrysler PT Turbo (great tire hauler and butt hauler)
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rocky Entriken" <rocky@tri.net>
> To: "Dave Kizerian" <davekizerian@hotmail.com>; <autox@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 6:17 PM
> Subject: Re: Arizona Motorsports Park
>
>
> > Does ANYbody out there know what actually happened?
> >
> > > The last-minute change in locations is due to a local ordinance passed
> > > this morning that will not permit any events to be
> > > held at the Arizona Motorsports Park effective immediately.
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