Citizens Group Urges Sonoma County to Curb Sears Point Expansion
28 July 1998
Citizens Group Urges Sonoma County to Curb Sears Point Expansion
SONOMA, Calif.--July 28, 1998--Concerned that a proposed major expansion of Sears Point Raceway "will lead to more gridlock on the Gateway to the Wine Country, endanger the environment with noise and air pollution and degradation of wetlands, and open scenic Sonoma County to irreversible commercial exploitation," a newly-formed citizens group has asked the county government to scale back the proposed seating capacity by 60%.
In a full-page ad appearing Friday in the Sonoma Index-Tribune under the banner, "Flag Down Sears Point," the group charged that, based on the track record of Sears Point's parent company at its four other raceways, "this grandiose expansion plan ... represents just the first step to increase the number of major events, attendance and other development at Sears Point."
Sears Point Raceway is located about 35 miles north of San Francisco at the intersection of a four-lane highway and a two-lane scenic road that is the entry point to both Sonoma and Napa counties
-- Northern California's "Wine Country," one of the state's top tourist attractions. The track, owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc. of Charlotte, N.C., currently has seating for 25,000 and is proposing to expand to 110,000. A recent NASCAR event attracted 110,000 and resulted in an eight-hour gridlock.
Calling itself "The Sears Point Yellow Flag Alliance" and committed to preserving the Sonoma Valley's quality of life, the group is urging Sonoma County's Board of Zoning Adjustments and the County Board of Supervisors to cut the proposed seating capacity to 44,500, reduce the frequency of large events, especially during the height of the tourist season from May through October, and limit the use of the facility to motorsports. Other Speedway Motorsports tracks in Charlotte, Atlanta, Ft. Worth and Bristol, Tenn., are used for concerts and auto shows, and include condominium developments, office towers, restaurants and private clubs with year-round memberships.
The action by The Yellow Flag Alliance follows on the heels of a decision by the Sonoma Valley Citizens Advisory Commission, an agency appointed by the City of Sonoma and the County's Board of Supervisors, unanimously rejecting Sears Point's Environmental Impact Report as "inadequate and incomplete." The Advisory Commission found that "the proposed expansion and extension, besides degrading the character of our community and detracting from its image, would fail to conform with the County's General Plan. Non-compliance issues are so numerous and of such great magnitude as to render the Scenic Resource designation for the Highway 121 corridor meaningless and set a dangerous precedent for unmitigated commercial development in other scenic areas of Sonoma County."
While contending that "in the final analysis the highway infrastructure ... cannot be upgraded to meet the needs of a racetrack and entertainment facility seating 110,000 people," the citizens group also asked the Board of Supervisors to require the raceway "to pay a significant share of the cost of alleviating event-related gridlock."
In its full page ad the citizens group noted that a recent Sears Point press release said the $30 million proposed expansion would position the track "to reach new heights of facility development and in the quality of events it offers fans." The ad continued, "This for a facility that already proclaims itself 'arguably the world's busiest racing facility, with track activity scheduled an average of 340 days a year.'"
Note to Editors: For additional information and the full text of the statement by The Sears Point Yellow Flag Alliance, contact Marvin Krasnansky at 707/996-8244, or by fax at 707/996-2349, or by e-mail, mkras@pacbell.net.