Otay Mesa
The U.S. Border Patrol has asked the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to reconsider a decision by the county Planning Commission to allow a 70,000-seat auto race track to be built 70 feet north of the Mexican border at Otay Mesa. The commission approved plans for the $16-million, 426-acre project May 16.
Chief Border Patrol Agent Alan Eliason appealed the decision Friday. The board must hear the matter within 60 days. Besides charges that the track would attract alien and drug smugglers, the Border Patrol has complained that aliens would have an easy time hiding in the huge crowds and that agents would have a difficult time finding cars that might be transporting aliens.
The raceway would include parking for 17,000 vehicles and would be in operation at least 24 weekends a year, said Jim Stanton, president of the San Diego Motor Racing Assn., which is one of the project’s backers.
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