Alaska Raceway Park plans expansion, seeks gravel permit

BUTTE — A raceway that drew heat from surrounding residents about a year ago is now applying for a conditional use permit to extract gravel from a parcel nearby to use in the construction of an oval track.

Earl Lackey, owner of the Alaska Raceway Park, is asking the planning commission for permission to extract gravel from a parcel located adjacent to the raceway. For now, he said he intends to use the gravel primarily as filler for the construction of a new oval racetrack. A second phase of the plan would offer gravel for sale to off-set the cost of the racetrack’s construction, Lackey said.

The conditional use permit will go before the borough planning commission for a quasi-judicial hearing May 18.

The intent is to maximize the land’s potential, Lackey said.

“I’ve got 27 acres here, and we use probably four or five acres,” he said of the adjacent parcel he acquired from the borough for $27,000 in 2003. “We were just hoping to get some value out of it.”

The raceway drew strong objection about a year ago over concerns about potential noise violations associated with the raceway track, though local residents also asked the assembly to allow the park to build an oval permit. The Valley’s only other oval track, North Star Raceway, has remained shuttered since shortly before the death of the majority owner Lud Larson.

The only other paved oval race track in Alaska is in Fairbanks, Lackey pointed out, and his track’s location would be within 45 minutes of the majority of Alaska’s population. The park is also next to the Jim Creek Recreation Area, creating an opportunity for synergy, Lackey said.

“Our drag strip and our piece of property we’re gonna build the track borders for a mile on the Jim Creek recreation area — and Jim Creek is a motorized recreation area — so all of the motorsports are right here in one spot,” he said. “It works out really good for us to have a multi-use racing program, and we’ve always expected this to be a motorsports park someday to where all the motorsports would be done in one specific area around here and it would eliminate a lot of the street racing and things that would go with it.”

Lackey said he also intends to use a portable asphalt machine to pave the track itself.

Borough assembly member Jim Sykes, who represents the area, said he’s heard from numerous constituents with concerns about both the gravel extraction and paving parts of the project.

“There are a number of constituents that have been concerned and a bunch of them called me up a few weeks ago and they’d received the mail-out notices that are required for people living near the thing,” he said.

Alaska Excavating LLC was likely to receive a permit to extract and crush gravel at a lot just across Sullivan Avenue for the borough’s Sullivan Avenue and Caudill Road upgrade, according to borough planner Susan Lee.

Reclamation at the site was expected to last until 2016.

Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the amount paid for the site of the gravel pit.