hopefully they win their court case or whatever it is that’s going on.
You’d be surprised at how many people would have taken it seriously. Trust me.
build them from dirt, they likely have a bulldozer or front end loader, dig a hole(pond?) move the earth
well TMP dug a hug L style sized hole and but the burm up and I think its like 28 feet tall if I re-call right.
Also Armstrong wasn’t bashing on Dunnville he was just stating that they had the same problem and what they did was just build that hug burm to make people happy.
I don’t think Dunnville really want to spend the kind of money it’s going to cost for them to build suck a burm to stop noise, they are a small place and don’t run much making it not really worth the 10s of thousands to build it.
http://www.dunnvillechronicle.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1715629
After five years of operation and months of heated debate, drivers have taken their last lap at The Dunnville Autodrome.
The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) passed a verdict last week, rendering its decision that “all racetrack use and activity must be stopped immediately.”
Since 2004, The Autodrome has leased a part of an airport hangar at the Dunnville Airport on Port Maitland Road and ran various automotive and car racing related activities, including a 2.2-km long outdoor Formula track constructed on part of an unused runway.
The OMB ruled Aug. 17 that the Autodrome’s activities do not constitute a legal use under the present zoning bylaw and that it would not constitute good land use planning to legalize them, as they are incompatible with the surrounding land uses.
“This has been the position of Dunnville CARES right from 2004 when the Autodrome commenced operations,” said Bill Strong, Chairman of the group of nearby residents that formed to oppose the track, largely because of what members consider excessive noise. “We are ecstatic. We feel it was the right decision. It took us five very long years. The noise is the main disruption,” said Strong. “It was impacting everyone’s lives in the area, and it was also affecting tourism at Maitland Shores Trailer Park and cottagers at Beckley Beach.” Strong said there are 50 or 60 officially registered members of Dunnville CARES, but that upwards of 250 area supporters -mainly residing along Port Maitland Road -have also donated funds to the organization over the years.
A total of 10 residents spoke at the OMB hearings on the group’s behalf, and Strong said they also brought forth “a sound expert witness, a planner, and an airport safety expert, because we felt there was an issue with the planes and skydivers landing close to the track.”
Before all the controversy erupted, Autodrome employee Jon Kuiper recalls how the past five years of his life coincided with the lifespan of the track.
On his last day as a student at Dunnville Secondary, he led the Lamborghini and Lotus that had wheeled into town looking for the track at the Dunnville Airport. “So I hopped in my old $300 Jeta and brought them to the Autodrome,” said Kuiper, and he’s been there ever since.
“For the last five years, I’ve learned enough just from being at the Autodrome to be a professional driving coach. I never knew anything about the Autodrome until my last day of high school and went back on the weekend to check out the Formula cars, and met Lee (Abrahamson), the owner, who was helping out. The mechanic needed to fix a car and I’m a mechanic so Lee said, ‘Why don’t you help out?’ I worked my way up to the top.”
Besides producing the Autodrome’s website, along with in-car training videos and promotional flyers, Kuiper said he’s opened the gates at 6 a. m., “swept the track, greeted guests, taught them to drive, and cooked them lunch on the barbecue” while employed there. He’s also had the opportunity to introduce the track to 90210 actor Jason Priestley and other celebrities who share a love of driving.
“This is a good track for training,” he said, adding that unlike other tracks, the Autodrome has no cement walls or other potentially dangerous barriers for drivers to hit. “It’s a training and research and development track. We never had any races out here. That was never the plan.”
According to Kuiper, “The Internet is exploding” with correspondence from Autodrome supporters, voicing their disappointment about the track’s closure. He hosted a farewell party this past Sunday night as the Autodrome’s final event.
PLEASE SEE “OMB HEARING” The OMB report stated, “The proponent claimed it was their understanding from early discussions with municipal officials that the Autodrome business was desirable by Haldimand as a recreation facility that would draw business and investment to the municipality. The Autodrome concluded, in their own due diligence and by their own advisors, that their uses would be allowed under the current municipal planning instruments and chose to proceed with a business decision sometime in 2003, to lease space at the Dunnville Airport and to construct the track. Further, it was the proponent’s opinion that the Autodrome is not a racetrack per se, because ‘wheel to wheel’ competitive racing is not permitted, and as such, Ministry of the Environment (MOE) noise guidelines do not (or should not) apply to this facility.”
And while there was extensive debate about whether or not the Autodrome was, in fact, a racetrack, the OMB concluded that residents had a case in their claim that when several cars used the track at high speeds at the same time, it produced excessive noise.
The report further stated that when Autodrome owners were “made aware of the municipality’s concerns about zoning compliance in 2003 and 2004 and noise complaints, they submitted the required applications, including a series of noise studies, and have been working cooperatively with Haldimand. They have since also instituted a two-step control measure to screen cars for noise before entering the track and they now require mufflers on all cars.”
After a lengthy process and numerous discussions and noise studies, Haldimand held a statutory public meeting in June 2008. Council refused the Autodrome’s applications to amend the Town’s Official Plan to redesignate land to add a site-specific policy that would allow additional uses on the subject lands and amend the zoning bylaw to rezone airport lands for various “entertainment uses” and special events.
The case was referred to the OMB, and consisted of 13 hearing days and two evening sessions set aside for the community to express their views.
Three land use planners spoke, with one providing evidence in support of the Autodrome and two in opposition. Haldimand’s CBO and Zoning Examiner, Ed Vanderwindt, provided evidence in opposition, and real estate appraiser Ben Lansink spoke on behalf of Dunnville CARES, predicting that property values could be negatively impacted “when one is located near intrusive land uses.”
Four acoustical and noise experts made presentations; two on behalf of the Autodrome, one on behalf of Dunnville CARES, and H. Gidamy of S. S. Wilson Associates reviewed and critiqued the studies as Haldimand’s peer reviewer.
Owner Lee Abrahamson and two Autodrome employees -Steve Strong and Marian Kuiper, who also live in the area – voiced their support at the hearing.
Neale Armstrong, on behalf of Toronto Motorsports Park and D. Blunt, on behalf of Beckley Beach Cottagers Corporation, spoke in opposition of the Autodrome.
“It kind of feels like your best friend died,” said Steve Strong, Community Relations Officer for the Autodrome. Surprised by the OMB’s total refusal to allow track operations, “We thought they might restrict us a bit in the way we operate,” he said. “Until you get out in a car and see how fun it is, you have no idea what we’re about. There are still lots of people who don’t know it’s there, but it ran for five years and one month. They don’t really understand what it is. It’s a lot of fun. We worked pretty hard and hoped things would work out. It’s one more thing that didn’t work out in Dunnville. It was exciting to have something, especially for the young people.”
“The Board does not stand in the way of progress and economic development of a municipality,” reads the OMB report, "… Similarly, the Board does not wish to interfere with the interests of the business community, including the car ‘testing,’ sales and entertainment sectors, including racing enthusiasts, many of whom frequent this facility.
However, the Board can not readily consider approval of a highly disruptive land use or activity and an operation that does not seem to have paid an adequate amount of attention to the concerns and well-being of the community and has operated over the past five years in what has been suggested to be outside the municipality’s bylaws and other regulations."
Fuck TMP, what a bunch of scumbags. I will NEVER support an event there again. It’s only an additional 90 miles me for me to goto Nelson Ledges which is arguably one of my favorite tracks and is longer, faster, more challenging and price the same as Cayuga.
lol i hate to say it but i really enjoyed cayuga, but this is weird and lame at the same time that another track would do this to another track.
So what’s up with this new fort erie track that’s supposedely going to maybe happen in 2010? 4km length course?
It’s not weird, it makes business sense to close down your competition. The majority of people will not care that TMP spoke against Dunnville. I can tell you for a fact though that they lost the business of anyone in Buffalo or Rochester that had previously supported Dunnville.
If I win the 649, I’ll build a track in Milton.
Yea man true say we have alot of open space more west of us its crazy, alot of money can be made…
why don’t we organize a protest? I’m sure we could rally up a few car clubs and notify the media to create awareness.
I’m almost 25 years old and have no speeding tickets, no accidents, or moving violations. I would say that going to race tracks since i was 18 has impacted this outcome. We need race tracks or else people are going to die under my bumper at 180kmph in a school zone.
It’s not about making money! It’s just about having a race track. 
Milton would be sooo awesome…especially for Oakville, Missisauga, and Brampton peeps.
I HIGHLY doubt the Milton farmers would like to see a race track.
Especially when the MP (Mr. Chuddly) has a big apple farm himself.
Nice.
wow, that sux balls! Dunville track was great! Road racing is soo much fun. Too bad many street racers never get exposed to it. As mentioned in an earlier post, racing on a track helps you learn how to control the car and understand how the car reacts at speed. Cops should be sponsoring and supporting track days for fuck sakes! They tell you to take it to the track… do something to educate street racers! Now a popular track closes.
Wow thats bullshit. but this is what happens.
People know there is a track in the area and still move in. yet after a while they complain well DONT fucking move in then!! people here are retarded. but thats what they do.
but i know for a fact that they are building a new track in port hope i think it is. should be up sometime not sure when.
All that is needed are special walls. makes the noise go up instead of around the area. not even high ones. its simple but people just dont want tracks around. they will do anything to stop us from having fun. maybe we should all meet up and hit the streets and send out a big msg lol. j/k
In florida all the tuners got together and made a huge stink of things. maybe it has to be done. not the best way to get what you want but at least itll get you some attention. shit if it was up to me id to the protest on the road of the mayors house lol. that way its clear in his face. or whoevers incharge. its apublic road they cant do shit.
thats just me tho. other than that whatever, ill just go down to the states and track it whenever i can, or some tracks still open
nascar/cascar? so its an eliptic track? wait does canada even do cascar anymore?
London was getting the Delaware race track rebuilt as part of new management. I thought I saw it being raced on by Nascar while I was watching the Speed Channel but Im not sure.
Oh and i’d rather have a circuit than an eliptic track. 350z drifters… damn rich ppl, you must have connections so get it done! lol
Well its sad to see Dunnville go especially since i never had the chance to go there but it was a matter of time because the people have the politicians by the balls and if this municipality group wouldn’t get rid of the track, they would have voted in another one to rid the town of the track.
All in all, as unfair as it may be there’s nothing that can/should be done because i highly doubt all the complaints from everyone outside of the town would matter to them. Hopefully they finish the track in Erie soon though, that would be nice to see a new track…that or Fobwall should get on the ball and go win himself the lottery already haha. Nonetheless, when and if the track in erie opens up, ill definitely come back from Europe to go check it out.
there seems to be a lot of people in here that dont understand the race track wasn’t in operation before the majority of the community moved in. Its only been open 4-5 years, I don’t think there’s a single house in dunnville newer than that.
It sucks but if you’re racing without a proper track operating license then you can’t really complain too much. its like getting mad for having your car taken away because you drove without a license. Who is really at fault?
^^
+1 agree to the track not being there before the houses
-1 to the track racing statement (correct me if i misinterpreted that statement)
If i recall, there was no mention of actual racing, just lapping so they weren’t required to have a racing license(w.e the document is called) to operate the track. Thats like telling the powerade centre to get a license to run AutoX although i really dont doubt that the track probably did run some races without a permit and it wasn’t zoned to be a track anyway.
oh and i forgot to mention in my post from earlier, if the airport is a small private airport like buttonville, the noise complaint is valid because the sound of a turbo prop engine is a lot quieter than a jet engine from a 747.
They were operating on a bit of a loophole with the license. sure it wasn’t sanctioned racing but there was still lapping and racing going on. Motorex wasn’t illegally importing skylines… they were legally bringing in “kit” cars. at the end of the day there was a skyline running around town, and dunnville was operating as a race track.
Hopefully the erie speedway/raceway/whatever will start happening soon to take place of dunnville.