City Suspends Lawsuit : Del Mar, Fairgrounds Settle Auto Race Feud

City officials and members of the Del Mar fair board formally declared a truce Friday in their feud over a planned Grand Prix auto race, but residents opposed to the event were hardly crowing with pleasure over the settlement.

Under the compromise, hammered out during weeks of difficult negotiations and signed Friday morning, Del Mar has suspended its lawsuit challenging the auto race, a 10-day vehicular extravaganza scheduled to begin Oct. 31 at the fairgrounds.

In return, the 22nd District Agricultural Assn., as the fair board is formally known, has agreed to abandon efforts to secede from the tiny city, which is heavily dependent on the $800,000 in revenue it receives as host of the fairgrounds each year.

Both sides also pledged to form a community relations committee to address issues of mutual concern and, it is hoped, prevent future tensions from escalating into court battles.

Finally, the district has agreed to exercise “its good-faith effort” to mitigate noise generated from events at the 330-acre fairgrounds.

The city’s lawsuit, which challenged the adequacy of an environmental impact report on the auto race, had been scheduled for a hearing in San Diego Superior Court on Friday morning. Instead, representatives of the district, the city and a housing development that joined Del Mar’s legal challenge to the race informed Judge Donald Smith that a compromise had been struck.

Both Mayor Lew Hopkins and fair board President Raymond Saatjian praised the agreement as a resolution with pluses for both sides. The two officials said they believe the truce marks an end to a period of hostilities sparked late last year when the district announced plans to hold the high-speed racing event.

Moreover, the mayor noted that the city is suspending, not abandoning, its lawsuit and may choose to revive it if tensions flare at a future date.

Nonetheless, Del Mar Councilwoman Brooke Eisenberg, who was on the city’s negotiating team, said she was disappointed that the race will still be held. “This is not a day for dancing in the streets of Del Mar,” she said.

Hopkins also tempered his enthusiasm, predicting that his “phone will probably start ringing soon” with calls from residents disappointed that the city had dropped efforts to block the race.

“There are people who will be unhappy with what we’ve worked out,” Hopkins said, “because their feeling, like mine, has been that a Grand Prix-style race is not in tune with the character of Del Mar.”

Indeed, some race opponents seemed surprised and frustrated that the city had aborted its lawsuit and forfeited any opportunity to thwart race promoters from holding the event, presented by sponsors of the famous Long Beach Grand Prix.

“They did what?” said Eleanor Friedland, whose home overlooks the race track, upon learning of the settlement. “Oh my, I’m just undone by that news. It really seems a shame to me that they gave up. I thought they should give (race promoters) as much trouble as possible and try to scare ‘em off.”

Friedland’s husband, Hal, had a more vehement reaction: “They’re chicken, let’s face it. I’m quite upset they’d cave in to the (fair board’s) scare tactics.”

Representatives of Citizens Against Noise (CAN), a group formed to fight the race, also were chagrined that Del Mar had “thrown in the towel,” as one member put it.

CAN executive director Mary Fehrer said group members would not have dropped a lawsuit it filed over the race had they expected legal challenges by the city and the Beach Colony apartments to be withdrawn.

“I guess the threat of deannexation worked,” said Fehrer, whose home on the border of Del Mar and Solana Beach overlooks the fairgrounds. “It’s too bad, because those issues deserved a hearing in court.”

Other race opponents questioned the benefits the agreement had brought citizens of Del Mar, suggesting that the city got shortchanged.

“I can only hope that there’s some compromise in all of this that we don’t know about,” said Nelda Smart, who lives near the fairgrounds on Via de la Valle. “Personally, I would rather have seen the city continue with the suit--because they’re right--than accept this.”

Still, council members and other residents argued that taking a stand in court was not worth the price of a deteriorating marriage with the fair board.

“Even if we had won the lawsuit, it would have been a Pyrrhic victory at best because of the damage it would have done to relations with our neighbor,” Councilman Scott Barnett said. “And personally, I don’t think it’s appropriate for two public agencies to be duking it out in court.”

Barnett added that he believes the community relations committee, apparently the first of its kind in the 27 years the fairgrounds has been in the Del Mar city limits, will be an important mechanism for managing future problems.

“I think this will enable us to get a grip on differences before they explode into brush fires or major conflagrations,” Barnett said. “That’s something new and meaningful.”

Some residents, however, questioned whether the fair board would take seriously recommendations of the committee, which will meet bimonthly and consist of two representatives each from the district and the City Council.

“The proof is in the pudding, and it all depends on how aggressive this committee will be and whether the fair board will allow it to have some influence,” said Gill Williamson, a Del Mar resident and professor of mathematics at UC San Diego. “Right now the fair board is just a loose cannon, and they’ve shown very little regard for the impact of their actions on the community.”

Despite their disappointment, race opponents noted that individual residents troubled by the noise may resort to independent lawsuits against the fairgrounds or race promoter Christopher Pook. They also found solace in the knowledge that the state Coastal Commission granted a one-year permit for the event and will review its impact on the environment before extending approval.

And several opponents seemed eager to take Pook up on his offer to bus any interested resident out of the area for a 10-day, expenses-paid vacation during the running of the race.

“Let me tell you, this old lady’s going to be the first one on that bus,” Eleanor Friedland said.