Hot Springs is too close to Dallas, straight shot on I-30. JMHO
Race proponent open to laying Arkansas track
BILL BOWDEN
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
FORSYTH, Mo. — The developer of a $150 million motor speedway in southern Missouri plans to meet Friday with representatives of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.
“We will not deny that we have a planned meeting with Arkansas state officials in Little Rock on Friday,” said Nathan Adams, a spokesman for developer Russell Cook of Hollister, Mo.
Scott Hardin, a spokesman for the Arkansas agency, said he couldn’t comment.
The Branson speedway project, planned for an 800-acre site near Ridgedale, Mo., has hit a few bumps lately.
Area residents have complained about the noise and traffic that races would generate. And Johnny Morris, the founder of Bass Pro Shops, opposes the racetrack, which would be about 2 miles from his Big Cedar Lodge on Table Rock Lake.
Morris has said the proposed raceway would spoil the scenic beauty and quiet of the Ozark Mountains in southern Missouri.
Cook said he intended to build the speedway in Missouri, but he’s considering all options.
“I’ll be honest, because I’ve lived up here all my life I’d like to see it up here,” said Cook. “But it has got to be a business decision. We’re going to build a racetrack. Whether it’s here or down the road a little farther south has yet to be determined.”
When asked about a site in Arkansas, Cook hinted at several possible locations, including central Arkansas.
“Hot Springs is a destination,” he said.
Cook has cleared 70 acres of land for the track 2 miles north of the Arkansas-Missouri line in Taney County. After scheduled completion of the 1.25-mile track in 2013, Cook has said he hopes to bring NASCAR races to the venue. According to NASCAR’S website, the organization sanctions more than 1,200 races at 100 tracks in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
When asked if he would move the project after doing the dirt work, Cook said, “That black dirt you take up, it goes back down.”
On Monday night, a crowd of 400 people attended a public hearing on the project in a gymnasium at Forsyth High School. It was the Taney County Planning and Zoning Commission’s second meeting regarding the speedway. The seven planning commissioners will meet again Monday to vote on the proposal.
Bob Atchley, Taney County’s planning administrator, said 95 people signed up to speak at Monday’s meeting and about 50 spoke. The meeting lasted six hours, adjourning about midnight.
Based on applause, Atchley said the crowd seemed evenly split for and against the proposed racetrack.
Cook didn’t attend the meeting, but his team did a presentation and later took questions from the crowd.
Bryan Wade of Springfield, Mo., an attorney representing Big Cedar Lodge, spoke next.
Wade said Cook doesn’t have a good track record for developing projects in the area. Land was cleared for two of Cook’s projects, but no buildings have been constructed, Wade said.
Wade referred to Tuscany on the Lake, a condominium development on Table Rock Lake, and TanStone Plaza, a commercial development in Branson.
“The land has been scarred, and no development has occurred,” Wade said as he projected an image of the Tuscany on the Lake site on a screen for the audience.
Wade also said there has been “a lack of transparency” about how the speedway would be funded.
Cook has said he has funding lined up but has declined to reveal the source.
Adams said Cook has signed a nondisclosure agreement with Arkansas economic development, which requested financial information regarding the speedway proposal.
Tom Gammon, director of construction and development for Branson Sports Entertainment Complex, as the proposed speedway is officially known, said 1.9 million people live within 100 miles of the proposed site in Taney County. He said that’s a sufficient area to draw racing fans to the track and to support ancillary development such as retail and restaurants.
Much of the discussion Monday night concerned noise levels.
Representatives of HNTB Corp. of Kansas City, Mo., which is doing work for the developer, said noise from the track would be 30-45 decibels by the time it reached Big Cedar Lodge.
Keith Crawford, who lives a half-mile from the proposed track, said the noise would be 60-70 decibels at his house during a race.
“That’s approximately five times louder than the normal ambient level and three times louder than conversations,” he said.
Adams said the track would host races about 20 days each year.
“Everybody thinks it’s going to be used just for racing,” he said Tuesday. “Well, it’s going to be used for concerts, community events, faithbased rallies and Fourth of July fireworks, too.”
Stands accommodating 65,000 spectators are planned for the site in Taney County. Full build out, over the next 20 years, could include 1,700 acres and seating for 100,000, according to initial plans for the speedway.
Cook wants help from the state of Missouri to pay for $70 million in infrastructure upgrades that would be needed to handle 22,000 cars traveling to and from the track on race days. But Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed a bill Friday that proponents thought might provide funding for the speedway.
House Bill 1008, sponsored by Missouri state Rep. Thomas Long, R-Battlefield, would have allow the state’s Highways and Transportation Commission to enter into agreements to repay any funds spent on road improvements that benefit the county or a private entity.
Long thought the bill will keep projects such as the Branson speedway from moving out of state. In 1997, Missouri lost the Kansas Speedway to that state because Kansas provided more incentives, he said.
