Public Meeting Held on Dominion Raceway Proposal; Spotlight Turns to Shenandoah

Manassas, VA(December 13, 2012) – Over 200 people attended a meeting at the Ramada Inn in Fredericksburg, VA.  Concerns about traffic and noise were addressed at the meeting.  A traffic expert said at the meeting that there is five times more traffic on the west side of Interstate 95 than on the side the proposed complex would be built on.  Steve Britt told the crowd of over 200 that the oval would be designed in a way to keep sound levels down.

The multi-purpose facility will include a four-tenths of a mile high banked oval, a one-eighths of a mile dragstrip and a two mile road course.

The land the track would be built on will have to be rezoned from an Agricultural District (A-1) to a Commercial Highway District (C-3).  Zoning changes and approval of the complex will have to go through both the Spotsylvania County Planning Commission and the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors.  Before approval of the project, public hearings will be held by both the planning commission and board of supervisors.

The feedback for the proposed track at the meeting was positive.  One guest at the meeting said the track would be a positive for youth in the community.  In all, guests who attended the meeting said it was a well-run meeting.

“Overwhelmingly positive @DominionRaceway well-run meeting,” Bill Blevins (@billblevins), a Thornburg resident, tweeted after the meeting.  He also tweeted, “Headline: Thornburg bed and breakfast owners already making plans for big profits by marketing to @DominionRaceway fans”.

‘The Coalition to Preserve the Thornburg Countryside’, an organization opposing the complex, boycotted the meeting, which was organized by Britt and not Spotsylvania County’s planning department, saying, in a letter sent to The Free Lance-Star, “This so-called meeting egregiously violates the Planning Department’s published community guidelines”.  The letter also states that the racers attending the meeting are out-of-area residents and that affected parties were not invited to attend.  Dominion Raceway advertised the meeting, two weeks in advance, on their Facebook page.

The current Old Dominion Speedway complex in Manassas, VA is under contract to be sold in April.  Once the sale goes through, it is likely that the track will not operate in 2013 which means spotlight will shine on Shenandoah Speedway, located in the mountains of the Shenandoah Valley.  Shenandoah Speedway is expected to go through the process to become a NASCAR sanctioned racetrack.  Shenandoah races on Saturday nights, but the track can operate on Friday nights or on Sundays.  If the track acquires NASCAR sanctioning, they could see a boost as drivers and teams from Old Dominion might race there.  NASCAR is not likely to reject a petition for Shenandoah Speedway to be sanctioned, but they could request the track operate on another night so it doesn’t conflict with Dominion Raceway once it opens.