PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Palm Beach County staff is preparing to hear from motorsports advocates on direction to develop and operate a proposed off-highway vehicle park/racetrack near Loxahatchee.
"It's going to be loud it's going to be impossible to talk, because there's nothing to impede sound and people are going to look to leave here and they're going to have trouble selling their homes because property values are going to tank," said Corey Kanterman.
He's a parent that lives in the Arden Community, next to the new West Acreage Elementary School that's under construction.
The possible racetrack is about a mile west, near the 20-mile bend.
"Noise pollution is not healthy for children, it's not healthy for adults," said Kanterman.
He joined about 50 other protestors outside their community, protesting the raceway for the impacts it could cause.
"Traffic-- right now Southern is our only exit, we had to close for over five hours less than a week ago over an accident," said Ben Brown who was protesting with his son.
"Being fairly avid as a race fan, I'm not anti racing, I'm anti this location of this race track," said Brown.
I took those concerns to Madelyn Marconi, a supporter of the project.
She's one of the people planning to meet with county staff on Tuesday.
"The need for it far outweighs the loud individuals who are circulating false allegations about it," said Marconi.
As far as noise interrupting school operations, she said big races and events would happen outside of school hours and on weekends.
"There's always that assumption that motorsports are just loud, but the truth is you can stand next to a car and not even cover your ears," said Marconi.
She said the proposed location is already in a noisy part of town, as it's located near a quarry and a PBSO shooting range, and that the raceway would be factoring in decibel levels.
"Those of us that moved in here, the powerplant, the shooting range, all proceeded our purchase of our homes, we were aware of that that was a known factor," said Ben Brown. "The racetrack was never even talked about, nothing anybody knew about."
Marconi agrees the project may deter some portions of the population from moving in but it could attract other race car enthusiasts.
"It will drive economic impact for local businesses it will drive tourism right here to Palm Beach County," said Marconi. "The western communities at this point they need places to go and things to do, this motorsports facility will do exactly that."
As for safety, Marconi said the raceway could potentially be an outlet to cut down on illegal street-racing, and that the sport provides safe educational outlets for future motorsports drivers, as well as students in the area through S.T.E.M. program opportunities.
According to county staff there is no vote happening tomorrow, they're just meeting with motorsports advocates asking for guidance.
Protestors said they would like to see more studies done on traffic and environmental impacts before greenlighting the raceway idea.
