Years ago Englishtown faced the noise issue head-on. One of the first things that took place was an agreement among real estate agents that before they would complete any sale the prospective buyers had to visit the property to hear how loud the track was for themselves. That helped stop the practice of buyers reneging on sales after moving in and hearing that noise.
The track then built massive sound walls, something along the lines of $600,000, and this was easily more than a decade ago and possibly even two. Regardless, such walls would probably cost a couple of million now.
Regardless of the cost of those walls, homeowners took the track back to court with noise complaints, but the judge threw out their suit, reportedly stating that the track had done enough to curtail the problem.
The "Who-was-here-first" argument/rule used to be effective, but no longer.
Pomona is an example of a community working together with a track to keep everyone satisfied. I may be slightly off on this and admit it now, so don't flame me later, but I think the arrangement calls for something like no more than 11 days of racing per year. That's four for each of the national events plus a few more for other races/rain dates.
As I said, I could be off on the actual number of race dates permitted.
Fontana will probably have to enter into the same type of arrangement, but as to other facilities, each case is completely different.
The deciding factor will be, of course, how hard the suit is pressed and/or how willing or able the track is to provide sound walls.
Jon Asher
