EDMONTON – Tempers have flared among neighbours in Leduc County over a Formula 5000 test track being built on the private property of a local race driver.
Edmonton’s Jay Esterer – who has won 10 Formula 5000 races in New Zealand – has begun work on a 2.6-kilometre 12-metre-wide paved track on a quarter-section of farmland. The 160-acre lot plus Esterer’s adjacent land, where he has a cabin and a private runway, is north of Thorsby and about 40 kilometres west of Leduc.
Neighbour Brian Staszenski said he’s never seen anything “as outrageous and as obnoxious” as Esterer’s decision to continue construction of the track in opposition to the wishes of approximately 20 neighbours and an official stop-work order hand-delivered by the county on July 21.
Phil Newman, director of planning and development for Leduc County, said the work stoppage was ordered because the county is still reviewing Esterer’s development application permit filed June 13 and a subsequent noise-level report completed in August.
But other neighbours, including Lyle and Cindy Miller and Lorelei McLeod’s family who all live the closest to Esterer, have no problem with the development.
“It’s created a lot of bad blood in the neighbourhood,” Cindy Miller said, standing on the gravel road that runs between her bungalow and the land where the test track will be. On Thursday, a backhoe, tractor and packer were busy doing drainage work on the property, said Esterer’s brother, who wouldn’t give his first name. Jay Esterer is away in the United Kingdom and only provided comment by email.
No further work was being done to complete the track because of the stop-work order, the brother said.
Leduc County spokeswoman Leila Daoud said the stop-work order applies to all work on the property related in any way to the test track. She couldn’t say if or when county officials visited the land to determine if work had ceased, but said it’s incumbent on the person seeking permission to develop to comply with that order.
In an email, Esterer wrote the private track won’t have spectators and will see sporadic use – perhaps six times each month for short bouts – to test restored and newly constructed cars before they are transported to public racing events far from home.
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Formula 5000 race-cars are single-seater open-wheeled vehicles equipped with five-litre engines. They became popular in the 1970s and were raced by drivers such as Mario Andretti and Al Unser.
“There are no local facilities to sort a car out before spending much time and travel money only to find that you have a car that doesn’t work properly,” Esterer wrote. “Rarely will there ever be more than one car on the track. There will not be a full field of cars racing like you might find at a public facility.”
Esterer said each car will be equipped with special mufflers to reduce sound well below the typical levels found at public race tracks. A report by Accoustical Consultants Inc. showed that when a race car was placed in the middle of the track and its engine revved to its maximum, the sound level at Township Road 504 – the gravel road between Esterer’s place and the Millers’ – was 52 decibels, which is below the speech-interference range of 60 decibels. The sound decreased to 47 decibels in the Miller yard itself, the report stated.
Cindy Miller said she was sitting on the back deck during the testing and wasn’t disturbed by the noise. Lyle Miller said he’s more worried about the new dog kennel in the neighbourhood, since dogs are noisy and can escape and chase his cattle. He said another neighbour’s property is littered with old cars that could be leaking oil and gas into the nearby creek.
“I don’t think it’s going to change anything,” said Lyle, 54, who has lived on his family’s beef cattle farm all his life. “I don’t understand why all these other people are so concerned.”
Lorelei McLeod, who lives directly east of Esterer’s track, said she’s all for it.
“My husband and I both like watching NASCAR,” said McLeod, who was also in her yard the day of the noise testing. “To be honest, I can hear my neighbour’s lawn mower … more than I could his cars.”
Brian Staszenski, however, had less flattering things to say.
“On a personal level, (Jay is) a nice guy, but on another level he’s very rude and disrespectful and does not care he’s going to impact the value of our land,” said Staszenski, who believes the value of his property, about 800 metres away, will plummet. Staszenski has a hobby farm of 160 acres with 19 cattle, four horses, pasture and grain. “There’s more equipment there to build a highway than you can shake a fist at.”
Much of that machinery was parked Thursday, including two earth movers and the truck of an asphalt sealing company.
Staszenski said the fact that Esterer began construction and continues with it before getting county approval suggests he’s willing to defy regulations in other aspects, such as the intended limited use of the track.
“What we’re saying is, if he’s treating current laws, the bylaws, the development process with disrespect right now, what’s he going to do whenever he gets a permit?” Staszenski said.
In his email, Esterer wrote that being a good neighbour is important to him.
“The needs of the county and neighbours have not been intentionally ignored and will not be in the future,” he wrote. “I don’t feel that the track will dramatically change the atmosphere (of the area). On most days, the track will be vacant, just like the farmland.”
Staszenski remains worried about the noise of the vintage cars, the accompanying smells and extra traffic.
“These cars are known for two things: the smell of burning rubber and the high-pitched screaming sound coming off the engine,” he said. “We’re saying this is a noise issue. This is a farming community. This isn’t an industrial development.”
Carol Schmidt, about 1.6 kilometres away from the test track, worries the noise of racing cars will force her inside.
“It’s crazy. It drives me insane, actually,” said Schmidt, who raised her five children on her spruce farm with her husband, Harvey. They’ve been there since 1976. “We live in the country for peace and quiet. If this guy wants to build a racetrack, go build it beside your house. Don’t come out here.”
She said she’ll appeal if a work permit is approved.
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