Sears Point Noise Levels Violate County Regulations
12 August 1998
Sears Point Noise Levels Violate County Regulations, Track "Could be Shut Down"
SONOMA, Calif.--Aug. 12, 1998--
Attorney for Sears Point Yellow Flag Alliance Calls EIR
"Inadequate and Needs Substantial Revision"
Sears Point Raceway "could be shut down under existing conditions for violations" of the noise element of Sonoma County's General Plan and its use permit revoked, an attorney retained by opponents of the track's expansion plans has told the County Board of Zoning Adjustments.
In written comments on the draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR), Rachel J. Sater, an attorney with Brandt-Hawley & Zoia, a Glen Ellen firm specializing in environmental law, told the Board of Zoning Adjustments (BZA) that, "The EIR must disclose mitigation measures that would bring the Raceway, under existing and projected conditions into compliance," with the county's noise code. "The EIR fails to explain that noise levels associated with current operations violate the Raceway's current use permit," Sater added.
Sears Point is owned by Speedway Motorsports .
Sater told the BZA that the EIR "does not present any true alternatives"..."to minimize the proposed project's substantial unavoidable impacts to air quality, noise, traffic and circulation and biological resources."
For all of these reasons, "the EIR is inadequate and needs substantial revision," she wrote, saying that the final EIR requires recirculation before being considered by the BZA.
Brandt-Hawley & Zoia has been retained by the Sears Point Yellow Flag Alliance, a citizens group committed to preserving Sonoma Valley's quality of life.
The noise issue is one of "several areas of the EIR," that, "are severely flawed and inadequate when evaluated under the legal requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)," Sater wrote in a July 30 letter commenting on the draft EIR.
A source of many problems stems from the failure of the EIR to identify what -- if any -- use permit or other restrictions apply to the size and frequency of events at the Raceway, she said.
As a result, she continued, an "overarching flaw" of the EIR stems from the assumption that the number of medium and large events will increase only to the 41 projected by the Raceway from the current level of 28. These projections form the foundation of most of the EIR's impact analysis of traffic and air quality.
"However, the EIR identifies no legal or physical constraints that would require the Raceway to limit the size and frequency of events," Sater added. She noted that even if Sears Point abides to its projections, "a future owner...could decide to double the number of large events." She went on to note that the "EIR acknowledges" that an event that draws 10,000 spectators one year might attract 50,000 the next year.
"Thus, the worst case projections regarding traffic, noise, air quality and other impacts are falsely minimized by the EIR's assumption that Raceway event size and frequency will be limited," to Sears Point's projections.
Note to Editors: Rachel Sater is available today for telephone interviews. Contact Marvin Krasnansky to set up an interview and to obtain the full text of Sater's letter to the BZA.