Help a new track in Texas

Thought some of you guys might be interested in signing this petition as this new track in Texas is getting some opposition. This will soon be the closest track to me. Here's their post from facebook:

"Help

We are fighting a bunch of NIMBY folks down here in Texas of all places that are doing their best to stop our new track to replace TWS.

Could you possibly blast out to your base and ask them to join the petition, pass it on to their social media contacts and help us show that 1300 signatures in 4 months by the oppose side is nothing compared to what we have supporting a fantastic new track.

If they could stop by Bluebonnet Racing Circuit and like us on Facebook that would be gravy on the deal.

The link below takes you to a Petition created to support private property Rights and help counteract all the negative misinformation being put out by the oppose side against building of the New Bluebonnet Racing Circuit outside of Houston Texas. We need your support.

It's important that you sign and equally important you pass it on to everyone on your mail links and social media contacts asking them to sign and pass on to their friends.

Thanks in advance"

https://www.change.org/p/citizens-for-personal-property-rights-progressive-citizens-of-washington-county-support-private-property-rights-and-allow-bluebonnet-racing-circuit-to-be-built?recruiter=292118817&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share_email_responsive

Not in Texas, signed anyway.

Did they ever get anywhere close to the amount of funding needed to get started on this? Last I heard that even if they get this ruling that they were no where close to even being able to break ground financially unless something has changed recently.

And no offense to these guys, Change.org petitions are pretty useless. The developer did a real boneheaded move and didn't even feel the temperature of the community before trying to build out on this property and is really paying the price. They are in for a tough battle as that is a very tight knit community there.

I want this to take place as much as the next guy but I'll be very surprised if it does.

Honestly, I don't know a ton about their funding. From what I understand this is just to show that we can do a change.org petition too and there is support behind the track. I don't think there is actually any legal grounds where the locals can stop the track from moving forward but they can make it a hassle.

Trust me, Even without legal grounds, they can delay it so long that the development company will either bleed money till they are broke or interest will be lost. Seen it happen many many times.

The development company needs to get off the net and go out there and win the hearts of the people of Chappell Hill. That is the only way this will ever continue.

Those folk live there because they like the peace and tranquility from the traffic and noise of Houston. The last thing most of them want is a race track in their back yard.

I'm a very active member of the SCCA and overall club racing scene in Texas and know the issues well unfortunately. I wish them the best of luck. They have a huge amount of work in front of them. Shoot, you should have seen all of the back end politics it took to get COTA built and that is a sales tax generator for the city of Austin.

I definitely agree with you. I followed the building of COTA fairly closely and saw how close it came to not being built. You're right they do need to be out there winning over the community. I figured this is just a small piece in a large puzzle to show that there actually is backing for the track.

I'm a vintage racer in Texas and while I'd love a nice track close to home, I'm not signing the petition. My sympathies are with the homeowners who live out there. They are entitled to "quiet enjoyment." The track owners want to try an BS with decibel levels, but, bottom line, racetracks are noisy.

The owners had another site near Brenham that received a similar reception. They either need to get away from the cities or quit trying to bully and BS the locals with their "property rights" and get them on their side.

I don't know if they have financing, but at one time they were asking for donations, even though they are for-profit, which was an odd move.

Unfortunately, they missed the opportunity to buy TWS for about $6M a few years ago, which is a lot less than it will cost to build from scratch. TWS closes for good this month.

TWS is closing because the city it helped grow from a little Aggie-engineered seed finally got to it. Just in the time I was there it changed from "the biggest small town in Texas" to "The Bryan/College Station metropolitan area". The biggest reason everyone leaves after graduation is that the work is elsewhere. Once businesses start to see B/CS as a place worth operating out of due to the discount on Aggies, the explosive growth they've seen (121k in 1990, 184k in 2000, 228k in 2012) will go vertical. There isn't a natural limit on how big this place can get. There's open country on all sides, enough rainfall to make Lake Bryan a reservoir for a much bigger city if they can switch from thermal to solar or wind, and big 4-lane highways running NE-SW and NW-SE that cross north of Bryan.

The number of gearheads in the area (and the overflow from Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin) is almost enough to support a 2-mile oval and 3-mile natural terrain road course. If they build another track where land is cheap I can see it doing well. Bluebonnet isn't it, though, thanks to its proximity to a town. Build it in Calvert, Hearne, Iola, or Benchley and it'll operate for a couple of decades and make you a fortune in real estate.

So, A little update on the status of TWS. I was at the Majors all last weekend and the word is that the closing may be delayed again. 2 things that are causing issues.

1. There are some interesting deed restrictions that are coming to light while they were working on the re-deeding of the land for the development. Basically, if the land is used for anything other than a race track then there are some people that may have some rights to it.

2. EPA is making some noise and the there is going to be a very large cost to get the land ready for redevelopment.

It should be interesting but it looks like the SCCA should be getting scheduled for another event in November and we will just have to see what the future holds.

bmw88rider wrote: 2. EPA is making some noise and the there is going to be a very large cost to get the land ready for redevelopment.

I'm taking this out of context and reading only that the EPA is 100% pro-motorsport.

Had to Google NIMBY.

pinchvalve wrote: Had to Google NIMBY.

They are a "little" better than the BANANA's* we have around here. They are trying to stop people from building houses on lots that were platted shortly after the city was founded in 1745.

• BANANA - Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone

Bluebonnet has now announced that they have given up on the Chapel Hill property, so the petition is moot. They claim they have a bigger, better property lined up. They are being secretive about the location, perhaps to prevent opposition from coalescing.

Sounds like he did put a bid in for the Texas world facility. I read the announcement and it all leads to them buying and renovating Texas World.

It's kind of funny with the information that they put in there that they are projecting bringing in Pro races To the facility. I mean no offense but what series would choose there over COTA or texas motor speedway.

Or investing in ECR? They are desperately seeking capital to repave the track and make some improvements.

At one time, there was an investment group looking to build a paved oval track near I-26 down here. There's a bunch of little old ladies who are Friends of the Francis Beidler Forest who started a letter writing campaign to kill it, even though the proposed track was over 3 miles from the forest and on the other side of I-26. (I have it on good authority that the director of the Beidler Forest organized the campaign. He was one of my customers at the Subaru dealer and thought the whole thing was quite funny.) They were the only dissenting voice and managed to somehow get into the stormwater permit process; DHEC said the stormwater plan was better than expected and approved the permit, then it got yanked. It was approved yet again, then yanked again. This went on, with attorney fees piling up, to the point where the developers finally said the hell with it.

To this day it's not really clear who at DHEC was responsible for that but I'm about 95% sure the guy I'm talking about was instrumental.