Post by QueenCityMotorsports.com on Jul 17, 2007 15:23:00 GMT -5
Residents in Crosby Township are upset about Steve Engle's plans to buid a Drag Strip near their homes. What are your thoughts on this proposed Drag Strip?
Cincinnati Enquirer article:
Crosby Twp. residents fight proposed drag strip
BY CLIFF RADEL | CRADEL@ENQUIRER.COM
CROSBY TWP. - First, they took on one of Uncle Sam's nuclear waste dumps and turned Fernald into a nature preserve. Now, residents of this rural but developing township are battling a proposed drag strip nearby.
"Crosby Township was on the point of ruin with Fernald," said Sarah Gross, resident and member of RAMP (Residents Against the Motorsports Park).
"Now, people want to move in. Homes up to $1 million are being built. If this drag strip gets built, we will have lost everything we gained through Fernald's cleanup," said Gross, a Procter & Gamble engineer.
Steve Engel, the owner of a Butler County heavy-equipment hauling company, wants to spend $7 million on the project. The site would feature a quarter-mile drag strip, a 2,000-seat grandstand and, possibly, an oval race track years down the road.
Concerts could work on the site, but Engel expressed no interest in them.
He wants to stage races on the weekends. "Maybe 30 weekends a year, at the most," he said.
The motorsports park would be on 192 acres: 162 in the northwest corner of Crosby Township, 30 in the southeast corner of Butler County's Morgan Township.
"I'm trying to be a good neighbor," said Engel. "This is the perfect place for a drag strip. The hill on the west side buffers the noise. Fernald's on the other side. Nothing's going there."
Four hundred people packed a public hearing of the Crosby Township Board of Zoning Appeals at Crosby Elementary School Thursday.
The hearing lasted four hours. County and township officials, expert witnesses and lawyers addressed the board. The hearing will resume 7 p.m. Aug. 7 at a place to be decided later.
Opponents outnumbered proponents. Engel didn't care.
"Four hundred people showed up, eh? That's not too bad," he said, "Four hundred out of 4,000 (Crosby's estimated population)."
Engel expects races to draw daily crowds of 2,000 to 3,000.
"People at the meeting said they want a traffic study. Fine and dandy. I'll do one," he said. "But they should know that when Fernald was open (as a Cold War-era uranium foundry), it had over 3,000 workers. Nobody worried about the traffic."
Gross worries about traffic jams and noise. She lives 1.6 miles from the proposed drag strip.
"This is the country," she said. "It's quiet. Traffic's light. Crime's low. The air's clean. Life's peaceful. That would change with a drag strip."
The hearing's appeal centered on the denial of a zoning certificate to move ahead on the project. Joe Trauth, Engel's attorney, called the action "the most unconstitutional denial I have ever seen."
Trauth believes the township erred in denying Engel's request for a zoning certificate. The property is zoned heavy industrial. Crosby Township's zoning code says certificates can be denied if the project emits noise, gas, fumes or dust.
Trauth contends "there are no standards" for any of the offending categories. "So the certificate should not have been denied."
If the board denies the appeal, Trauth's next step could be Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.
Cincinnati Enquirer article:
Crosby Twp. residents fight proposed drag strip
BY CLIFF RADEL | CRADEL@ENQUIRER.COM
CROSBY TWP. - First, they took on one of Uncle Sam's nuclear waste dumps and turned Fernald into a nature preserve. Now, residents of this rural but developing township are battling a proposed drag strip nearby.
"Crosby Township was on the point of ruin with Fernald," said Sarah Gross, resident and member of RAMP (Residents Against the Motorsports Park).
"Now, people want to move in. Homes up to $1 million are being built. If this drag strip gets built, we will have lost everything we gained through Fernald's cleanup," said Gross, a Procter & Gamble engineer.
Steve Engel, the owner of a Butler County heavy-equipment hauling company, wants to spend $7 million on the project. The site would feature a quarter-mile drag strip, a 2,000-seat grandstand and, possibly, an oval race track years down the road.
Concerts could work on the site, but Engel expressed no interest in them.
He wants to stage races on the weekends. "Maybe 30 weekends a year, at the most," he said.
The motorsports park would be on 192 acres: 162 in the northwest corner of Crosby Township, 30 in the southeast corner of Butler County's Morgan Township.
"I'm trying to be a good neighbor," said Engel. "This is the perfect place for a drag strip. The hill on the west side buffers the noise. Fernald's on the other side. Nothing's going there."
Four hundred people packed a public hearing of the Crosby Township Board of Zoning Appeals at Crosby Elementary School Thursday.
The hearing lasted four hours. County and township officials, expert witnesses and lawyers addressed the board. The hearing will resume 7 p.m. Aug. 7 at a place to be decided later.
Opponents outnumbered proponents. Engel didn't care.
"Four hundred people showed up, eh? That's not too bad," he said, "Four hundred out of 4,000 (Crosby's estimated population)."
Engel expects races to draw daily crowds of 2,000 to 3,000.
"People at the meeting said they want a traffic study. Fine and dandy. I'll do one," he said. "But they should know that when Fernald was open (as a Cold War-era uranium foundry), it had over 3,000 workers. Nobody worried about the traffic."
Gross worries about traffic jams and noise. She lives 1.6 miles from the proposed drag strip.
"This is the country," she said. "It's quiet. Traffic's light. Crime's low. The air's clean. Life's peaceful. That would change with a drag strip."
The hearing's appeal centered on the denial of a zoning certificate to move ahead on the project. Joe Trauth, Engel's attorney, called the action "the most unconstitutional denial I have ever seen."
Trauth believes the township erred in denying Engel's request for a zoning certificate. The property is zoned heavy industrial. Crosby Township's zoning code says certificates can be denied if the project emits noise, gas, fumes or dust.
Trauth contends "there are no standards" for any of the offending categories. "So the certificate should not have been denied."
If the board denies the appeal, Trauth's next step could be Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.
