Noise Ordinance Kills Racing at Bloomsburg, PA Fairgrounds Raceway

[SID297]

From PRI:

Officials with Bloomsburg Fairgrounds Raceway--the 3/8-mile clay oval in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania--have announced that races are halted indefinitely following a county court ruling on noise ordinances. The track's statement is below.

On July 27, 2023, a hearing was held at the Columbia County Courthouse on a petition for a Preliminary Injunction filed by the Town of Bloomsburg against the Bloomsburg Fair [where the raceway is located.] The petition sought to enjoin the Fair from conducting any further automotive races at the Fairgrounds until such time as the Fair can show that racing can be conducted within the confines of the 65-decibel level as established by the Town's amended noise ordinance.
On July 31, 2023, the Judge granted the Town's Petition, and although we are disappointed with the Court's decision, racing will halt at this time in compliance with the Court's Order.
The Fair is presently considering its appellate rights in relation to this Order, and will continue to pursue damages against the Town for its losses in relation to this temporary shutdown of racing operations. We ask you to be mindful of the fact that the injunction order issued today is only preliminary, and the Fair will continue to litigate this matter in the Courts and fight for justice in the face of the Town's odious and unfair treatment of one of our area's most cherished organizations.

Bloomsburg Fairgrounds Raceway regularly races 602 crate modifieds, FWD 4-Cylinders, 305 PASS Sprints, All-Pro SpeedSTRs, Central PA Legends, wingless sprints, ARDC midgets, and more.

 

[Roots-type]

Noise ordinances at race tracks? It's almost as if the stage is being set for ev racing..

 

[gimmie11s]

"Noise" complaints are what killed the drag strip in Fontana, CA also.

Sucks

 

[87lc2]

That's ridiculous. Was just in Bloomsburg last month to see the monster trucks, guess that will be going away too...

 

[andymarkv]

I know some people on here don't care for him, but I could understand the frustration from Cleetus on YouTube.
After spending 4 years and tons of bucks rehabbing an old race track...local officials allowed a housing development to buy up ALL the land surrounding his track and adjacent drag strip, Bradenton motorsports park.
The argument was made, pre-vote, that they would never allow a race track to be built next to a housing development...why is this OK?
There were lots of promises of how "the housing development wouldn't impact the tracks"...but money talks. And if a bunch of tax payers in big $ homes get tired of the noise after a year or two...that will be the end of a couple high functioning tracks.

 

[SID297]

I know some people on here don't care for him, but I could understand the frustration from Cleetus on YouTube.
After spending 4 years and tons of bucks rehabbing an old race track...local officials allowed a housing development to buy up ALL the land surrounding his track and adjacent drag strip, Bradenton motorsports park.
The argument was made, pre-vote, that they would never allow a race track to be built next to a housing development...why is this OK?
There were lots of promises of how "the housing development wouldn't impact the tracks"...but money talks. And if a bunch of tax payers in big $ homes get tired of the noise after a year or two...that will be the end of a couple high functioning tracks.

There's a legal solution for all of this. I was talking to SEMA about it earlier this week, urging them to get more proactive and offering my services to help. I've been pushing them for over a year on issues like this, and many others. We'll see what comes of it...

 

[BlckBox04]

people built million dollar homes around Englishtown and complained about the noise also and eventually led to their closing too. We're going to see many small tracks close

 

[derklug]

At Gingerman in Mi, you can't run for a couple of hours on Sunday until church lets out. We had a lawyer build a house right across from the local gun range and then began to file complaints for noise.

 

[SolarYellow]

Understand that you are dealing with a small college town. I would think the majority of money comes from events at the fairgrounds like the upcoming bloomsburg fair. If some of them had balls, they'd cancel or boycott the fair and show the local government how much money it would be losing.

 

[Weather Man]

What used to be the countryside, isn't, in a lot of places.

 

[5.0 Hatch]

people built million dollar homes around Englishtown and complained about the noise also and eventually led to their closing too. We're going to see many small tracks close

I totally get it but the only thing the city sees is loads of money rolling in from property taxes vs what a track brings in. There's no comparison. Put that on top of what the city council members pocket on the backend from their friends/family or even their own construction companies to look the other way when it comes to zoning.

 

[BlckBox04]

I totally get it but the only thing the city sees is loads of money rolling in from property taxes vs what a track brings in. There's no comparison. Put that on top of what the city council members pocket on the backend from their friends/family or even their own construction companies to look the other way when it comes to zoning.

Oh yea without a doubt I agree but you should also know what is surrounding you when you move into a new area

 

[03cobra#694]

Build by an airport and complain, till you need to fly somewhere. It's unreal the stupid that exists anymore. Shooting them should be legal

 

[Weather Man]

Build by an airport and complain, till you need to fly somewhere. It's unreal the stupid that exists anymore. Shooting them should be legal

All the places that didn't keep people out of approach ways to military airports found out the hard way during the base reduction waves that it was a bad idea.

 

[SecondhandSnake]

Noise ordinances at race tracks? It's almost as if the stage is being set for ev racing..

That's about all it's going to allow. 65dB is ridiculously low for a town ordinance. A lot of factory vehicles and equipment is already over that limit. Better not even fire up some of your gas powered lawn equipment as it will exceed that. Even the crowd at the track better not rise above a golf clap. Wonder what cranky old person rammed through that ordinance.