Border Patrol’s Fears Discounted : Otay Mesa Raceway Gets Green Light From County

Despite strong objections from the federal government and a local anti-crime group, San Diego County supervisors on Wednesday approved the construction of a 426-acre, $25-million raceway next to the international border in Otay Mesa.

The track, to be built by San Diego Motor Racing Associates, is designed to host a variety of auto and motorcycle racing events beginning in 1988, including some that could draw as many as 70,000 fans.

In crowds that large, U.S. Border Patrol officials said during an emotional hearing at the County Administration Center, illegal immigrants and drug smugglers will find it easy to sneak across the border and evade authorities.

“We do not have effective control of that border,” Alan Eliason, chief of the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector, told the Board of Supervisors. “We’re simply asking you not to make our task more difficult.”

Eliason was supported by the San Diego Stamp Out Crime Council, whose vice president, Richard Blackledge, urged the board to reject the project.

Blackledge said the track would “create a great deal of noise and confusion, made-to-order for those who would enter our country illegally, bringing with them drugs, crime, terrorism, disease and poverty.”

“With the roar of engines, crowds of people and thousands of vehicles constantly coming and going, the situation becomes impossible,” Blackledge said. “The Border Patrol may as well pack up and open all borders to all comers.”

The proposal also drew opposition from some South Bay residents, who said the noise and traffic from the raceway would harm their community, and objections from the superintendent of the state prison that is under construction adjacent to the race track site.

But the track’s developers said the project would benefit both the local and county economy and would make it tougher, not easier, to cross the border illegally. The proposal was supported by several South Bay business groups, and by area racing associations and car clubs.

The track is to be built in an industrial area 20 miles southeast of downtown San Diego and seven miles east of Interstate 805. The site, at the foot of Otay Mountain, is bounded to the north by the new state prison and to the south by the U.S.-Mexico border.

The fence along the border, now a rickety collection of barbed wire strung on wooden posts, will be replaced for half a mile by two 10-foot-high chain-link fences topped by barbed wire and separated by a 150-foot-wide open area. Between the two fences will be a 3-foot-high crash barrier to stop vehicles.

From 17 to 320 security officers will be at the race track site at all times, depending on the degree of activity. The developer is negotiating with Mexican law enforcement agencies to have officers on duty south of the border on race days.

Timothy J. Graves, president of Graves Engineering, a consultant on the project, said illegal aliens would not try to cross the border at the race track rather than at their traditional gathering place near San Ysidro known as the soccer field.

“Place yourself in the position of an illegal alien seeking entrance into the United States,” Graves told the supervisors. “Would you choose to cross at the soccer field or one of the nearby canyons . . . in company of thousands of your comrades, or would you choose to walk 6 1/2 miles to the east to cross at our project site, which is guarded by Mexican police, triple fencing, graded roadways wider than freeways, barriers, setback, lighting, private security, electronic sensors and the sheriffs, as well as our private security forces, only to walk another 6 1/2 miles back to the west in order to resume your journey north? To suggest that even a small percentage of the total will choose this course of action is ludicrous.”

In addition to the security measures, the developers will be required to construct more than $8 million in public road improvements around their project.

Otay Mesa Road, the only access to the site, will be converted from a two-lane rural road to a six-lane highway, with three of the lanes reserved for race traffic, two kept free at all times for local traffic and one open only to emergency vehicles.

Jim Stanton, a former CIA agent and president of San Diego Motor Racing Associates, said the project will create 500 construction jobs, 100 full-time jobs and 1,000 part-time jobs.

The raceway will include a 1.33-mile-long oval track and a 2.66-mile-long road course. Bleacher seating will be provided for 46,000 fans, and an additional 24,000 will be able to view the races from hillsides and camping spots. The track will be surrounded by 17,000 parking spaces.

Races will be held as many as 24 weekends a year and could include Formula One Grand Prix cars, Indy-style cars, stock cars and motorcycles. Stanton said the events could pump more than $100 million into the local economy each year and more than $2 million in additional taxes into local government coffers.

The supervisors voted, 4-1, to reject the Border Patrol’s appeal of a county Planning Commission decision granting the developers a permit to build the track. Supervisor Paul Eckert voted to sustain the appeal.

Supervisor Brian Bilbray, who grew up in nearby Imperial Beach and represents the area on the board, said he does not believe that the immigration problem will be worsened by construction of the race track. He said the Border Patrol’s political energies should instead be directed toward persuading Congress to pass immigration reform legislation.

“I think that there are legitimate issues being raised here by the Immigration and Naturalization Service,” Bilbray said. “But I think it is being raised at this forum because the INS has been ignored by . . . the federal government.

“I think the INS is frustrated, rightfully so. And I think that after running into brick wall after brick wall for many years in Washington, they are grasping at whatever forum they can.”