City Hall News : IRWINDALE : Developer Proposes Motor Raceway

Developers who want to build a raceway next to the L.A. International Marketplace said they are optimistic about their chances after the Irwindale City Council’s initial response.

The proposed raceway would include a 3/8-mile oval track, a 6,500-seat stadium, and would cost about $3 million to build, said Dennis Constanzo of Oak Knoll Group, a Los Angeles development firm that is jointly planning the raceway with NuWay Industries, the company that built the marketplace.

The group went before the City Council May 26 to get council members’ views on the project, Constanzo said.

“We wanted to find out from the City Council if they are diametrically opposed to the plan,” he said. “The City Council said: ‘Go through the (city’s administrative) process. If it’s a good project, it’s a good project and if not, we’ll find out.’ Frankly, we find that encouraging.”

Constanzo said they will follow the Planning Department’s instructions on the project, paying particular attention to city noise ordinances, which he said are the biggest obstacle to approval.

“The real key to the project is sound,” he said. “It’s very important to understand we are not asking for a special dispensation. We will live under the existing noise ordinance. We will get our sound to that level or below.”

To do that, the track would require effective mufflers on stock cars, midget cars, motorcycles and go-carts, and monitor the sound levels at every race or practice session. They would construct the track with clay instead of asphalt, lower it slightly and build solid stadium walls to prevent noise dispersion.

Constanzo said that with these precautions, raceway noise in the nearest residential area--about one-quarter to one-third of a mile from the track--would probably be below the level of street traffic.

The plans will take three to six months to complete, Constanzo said, and if they are approved, construction would take an additional year. With 70 racing days a year, the raceway would bring $200,000 to $250,000 in annual revenues to the city, he said.

Revenue from the marketplace has been $28,000 to $32,000 quarterly in the 10 months since it opened, said City Treasurer Abe De Dios, about a third of what was expected. But he said he could not speculate on what income a raceway would yield.

Irwindale’s mayor and City Council members did not return phone calls regarding the raceway.