Borough clears the way for racetrack expansion

PALMER — After sometimes heated discussions, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly cleared the way for an expansion of Alaska Raceway Park.

The Butte-area drag strip hopes to expand to include an oval track for racing cars. When the borough passed regulations regarding racetracks, the Butte strip was grandfathered in. But those grandfather rights don’t allow expansion, at least not without a permit. Owner Earl Lackey said it’s kept him from expanding.

“It is impossible to make necessary improvements in our business the way the ordinance is currently written,” Lackey said.

Members of the public spoke both for and against the changes. A resident of the Bodenburg Loop area urged the assembly not to allow more noise into the community. Sam Combs, a motorcycle-racing architect, asked the assembly to “provide the community with an economically viable Alaska Raceway Park.”

Assemblyman Ron Arvin was the driving force behind the change. He said that it was a pretty simple amendment.

“I would ask that this simple language change. It doesn’t render a free for all in the borough. It’s not substantially different than anything we’ve talked about,” he said. “If you don’t want to have a racetrack in the borough that’s oval, then vote no.”

Assemblyman Jim Sykes, who represents the area including the park, said that he objected to the process used to bring the change forward. The assembly had previously considered a raft of changes to the racetrack regulations. Nowhere in there was a change to let Lackey’s oval track move forward. The changes were reconsidered and a new change adopted.

He also pointed to statements racetrack owners made to the Butte community that there would never be an oval track there. Those statements show up in minutes for the Butte Community Council from meetings 14 years ago.

Arvin defended the process.

“The public process is being gone through at this very moment,” he said. “Every single requirement that the facility currently operates under is going to be maintained, it’s just going to be an oval track next to the drag track.”

Speaking on Arvin’s side, Colver said he liked the idea of making small “surgical” changes to the code and supported helping the racetrack expand.

“You can’t be stuck with a 1964 business plan in 2014,” he said.

Assemblyman Vern Halter said that racetracks can draw people into the borough, and there’s an oval track already in Willow.

“I don’t really have a problem with this,” he said.

Eventually the motion to change the rules passed, with just Sykes voting against it.

Afterward, at the very tail end of the meeting, Sykes and Arvin both mentioned the vote.

“I think what really lost tonight was the public process. I don’t think you can say with a straight face that we had a public process when you bring an amendment that someone hasn’t even seen and then you have a vote on it. That’s not a public process,” Sykes said.

Arvin described that comment as “rude” and “borderline offensive.”

“I don’t appreciate the comment, the innuendo, that there was some subversion going on,” he said. “There is a process, it’s in the public purview, and it was openly discussed.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.