Formal Race Track Applications Filed with City

Tulare - Proponents of a 700-acre motor sports complex in southeast Tulare have formally asked the city for general plan and zoning amendments and other entitlements they will need to build the project.

City Planning Director Mark Kielty said he hopes to have a consultant on-board within six weeks to begin work on the environmental impact report (EIR) that must be done before the project goes to the Planning Commission and City Council.

A draft EIR could be ready in late fall or early winter and would then under go a 60-day public review period before a final report is prepared, Kielty said.

The filings came less than two weeks after developer Bud Long held a question and answer session with neighbors to the project site, which is in the county northeast of the International Agri-Center.

Long anticipates breaking ground in January or February 2008. He said the tracks will take 12 to 18 months to build and the earliest racing event would probably occur in the fall of 2009.

“They are further along than I thought,” said Mitch Choboian, a Tulare realtor who has bought a home near the site and attended the Feb. 7 meeting at the Heritage Complex.

Long announced then that land agreements had been reached and the planning process would begin shortly, taking about a year to complete.

“I felt worse coming out of there,” Choboian said, reporting he and others plan to get an attorney to fight the project.

While many at the Feb. 7 meeting were concerned about the racetrack complex and its impact on the community, others expressed support.

“Bring it on; we'll have to learn to live with it,” one Sunrise Estates resident said. “You're talking about creating 1,000 real jobs.”

Long emphasized the project entailed more than the racetracks. Surrounding the one-mile super speedway and quarter-mile drag strip will be hotels—he reported five are already committed to the project—retail businesses, offices and other uses

Plans filed with the city break down land use as follows: Speedway and multi-level parking, 147 acres; drag strip, 88 acres; agri-business technology park, 79 acres; recreational vehicle park/resort, 66 acres; retail commercial with multi-level parking, 66 acres; retail anchor, 50 acres; industrial park, 44 acres; hotels/motels, 24 acres and amusement park, 14 acres. The project will also include a 33-acre ponding basin and 3-acre police/fire station.

“The only hotel we've been unable to attract is a major convention-based hotel [with 350 to 400 rooms],” Long said.

Why Tulare?

He was asked why developers chose to locate the project within the city, rather than at the Tagus Ranch interchange or another location where noise would be less of a factor.

“These facilities are not racing facilities as you've seen historically,” Long said. “It's a recreational complex and to be able to sustain restaurants and hotels you have to locate in cities.”

Noise is not the major problem people think it is, he said, adding a person standing in front of the Heritage Complex would hear less sound coming from the race tracks than from the freeway.

“In a stadium facility, the sound goes straight up,” he said.

He urged people not to compare his project with the Fontana or Las Vegas tracks. “Check out Phoenix,” he said.

Questioned specifically about the drag strip, he said rows of buildings will buffer the noise but admitted containing sound will offer more of a challenge than the speedway.

Asked about air quality impacts, Long said the motor sports complex will produce less pollution than whatever else could be developed on the site.

“Traffic management will probably be a major focus of the EIR,” he said, reporting Disney, “the world leader in traffic management,” is working on plans.

“We wouldn't be building this facility if NASCAR weren't coming,” Long said when asked if NASCAR officials have committed to races here. “Right now we're dealing with an industry that is in need of facilities.”

NASCAR officials had never heard of the San Joaquin Valley, but when they came here and met people they found that the Central Valley is one of its strongest fan bases in the nation, he said.

Long, who is scheduled to speak Feb. 23, to the noon Rotary Club, said educating the public about the project is one of his major tasks at this point.

Long was asked who would manage and own the complex.

“View us as sub dividers,” he said. “A great number of smaller parcels will be sold to developer/owners.”

As for the race tracks, more than likely the International Speedway Corporation or Indy Racing League would own and maintain them, Long said, adding the owner would be known by time the project goes to the City Council.

After the meeting, Choboian said he is concerned about “who's going to pick up the bill” if the stadium is built and goes bankrupt or the hotels don't go in. He also questioned whether “a town of 50,000 can support an outlet mall, our downtown and this metropolitan complex that he's talking about.”

The community is going to have to double or triple its size, he said. “Does the community want to do this?”

Mayor Craig Vejvoda, who attended the informational meeting, said he is listening to the concerns and is glad Long plans to be available to the community to answer questions.

“I simply need information,” he said. “There's a host of questions. He said he does not want to rush the process.

“That land we're talking about has been dirt for a very long time and I don't think we need to be in a great hurry to put something on that dirt,” Vejvoda said. We need to take time to make sure everybody's getting a fair deal.”

City officials are talking about the possibility of visiting a race track to explore further noise and traffic issues.

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Council Puts Auto Mall, Air Museum Proposals on Hold

Tulare - Two proposals to lease and develop 24 acres at Mefford Field and refurbish the 73-year-old hangar on the site won't get further City Council consideration until early summer. One of the proposals includes an auto mall, while the other features an airplane/military museum.

Council members, who met in closed session to review the proposals, want to wait until they have a better handle on the proposed 700-acre motor sports park complex and other issues, including extension of the runway at the city-owned airport.

“Somewhere along the way, the race track project became more of a possible reality,” Mayor Craig Vejvoda said. “If that project goes—and that's a big if—it could influence what might work or not work on that airport property.”

He also expressed concern the airport land might be more valuable than terms of the two proposals, which have not been made public, might suggest. “Maybe I'm mistaken about what that land's worth,” he said.

The council's decision generated mixed reaction from those involved.

“I don't think that's the way to do business,” Bill Dietzel said, adding he has invested considerable time and effort into the proposal and has financing in place. “If you're going to do something, let's get on with the program.”

Dietzel, who is publisher and editor of Veterans Magazine Inc. in Fresno, said he wants to restore the hangar, construct a second building and use both to house aircraft and military memorabilia. A 200-space recreational vehicle park and large restaurant with an aviation theme and meeting rooms for the site would help support the museum.

David Lampe, owner of Lampe Dodge Chrysler Jeep and one of three auto dealers that Dennis Stanley said is interested in the proposal he and his father, Cary Stanley, put together, had a different reaction.

“I'm sure they had their reasons and are doing what's in the best interest of the city,” Lampe said.

Will Tiesiera Ford and Merle Stone Chevrolet were also listed as possible auto mall participants. “It's something we're interested in looking atdepending on how it's structured,” Larry Stone said. “If there was ever a time all the dealers could get together in one location, it would be beneficial to all of us.”

Lonnie Tiesiera said he is considering expanding on his current operations on Mooney Boulevard, but would likely be interested in a satellite location if the motor sports complex is built.

Drawing People

Lampe said an auto mall, such as the one in Selma, would be wonderful for Tulare, because “people tend to be drawn to auto malls.”

Selma's per capita sales tax revenue for the third quarter of 2005the last quarter for which numbers were available-- was $191 with $100 of that coming from automobile sales.

Of Tulare's $122 per capita total, $36 came from auto and other transportation-related sales. (Selma has a population of 23,000 compared with Tulare's 51,000.)

Dennis Stanley said the proposal also included space for additional auto dealers, a Stanley's Food Mart like the others his family owns and a restaurant and gift shop that would go into the remodeled hangar.

“We also had talks with a very large upscale hotel,” he said.

The site with its freeway access is a good one and “it deserves better than an RV park,” Dennis Stanley said.

Dietzel disagreed and said his project makes sense given the historic nature of the hangar and its use as a military training site in World War II and given the property's location adjacent to Highway 99, which 13 million people a year travel.

“Let's make this a tourist site,” he said.

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Excitement Greets Love's Announcement

Tulare - City officials anticipate the proposed travel center at the Paige Avenue and Highway 99 interchange will bring to Tulare 35 to 45 jobs, at least $600,000 annually in sales tax revenues and a community-oriented company.

Love's Travel Stops and Country Stores announced at the start of a busy World Ag Expo week that it had purchased 30 acres from Harry and Stella Pappas and planned to build a 10,000-square-foot building that would house a number of fast food restaurants, a large convenience store and restrooms and showers for truck drivers and the general traveling public.

“I really like what I heard from Greg Love,” Mayor Craig Vejvoda said in a reference to the president and chief operations officer of Love's Development Companies who was in Tulare for the announcement.

“I see their organization as being a place where a person can go to work and make that a career,” Vejvoda said. “I see them as being good community corporate citizens and putting back into the community. That's the kind of employers we want. The sales tax revenues they bring in on top of all that is a bonus. I don't see money in the city coffers as being the number one benefit of having Love's here.”

The travel center is on a “fast track” and is expected to be up and running in about 10 months, which is four months before the city hopes to go out to bid for a design for reconstruction of the Paige Avenue interchange, City Manager Darrel Pyle said.

The project, though, is expected to have a major impact on the city's ability to pay for the estimated $25 million in interchange improvements. After learning the Ripon travel center generates about $600,000 in sales tax revenues for that community, Vice Mayor Phil Vandegrift said a similar revenue stream from here could be leveraged to issue about $12 million in bonds for the interchange.

“We're about half-way there,” Vandegrift said.

The Paige Avenue interchange has become an important focus because of the probability that when the general plan process is completed the city will have 2,700 acres earmarked for future industrial development, much of it north or south of Paige and west of Highway 99. The City Council, which at one time looked at constructing railroad grade separations only at Cartmill and Bardsley avenues to link the east and west sides of town, is also considering building either an overpass or underpass at Paige to facilitate industrial traffic as well.

The privately owned Oklahoma-based company was founded in 1964 by Greg Love's father, Tom Love, and has 135 travel centers and 65 convenience stores throughout the country. The company has three other travel centers in California in Ripon, Lost Hills and Coachella.

In 2006, Forbes Magazine listed it as the 64th largest private company in the U.S. with $3.81 billion dollars in annual revenues and 4,400 employees. According to the company's Web site, Love's was named Corporation of the Year in 1991 by the Sales and Marketing Executives International and was chosen by companies within the convenience store industry to receive the 2000 Outlook Award.

The company also reports it contributes a larger than average percentage of its profits to nonprofit organizations each year, including United Way and March of Dimes. In 2006, more than $370,000 was raised for the Children's Miracle Network which supports children's hospitals that serve communities where the business is located.

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Tulare Company Has Attention-Grabbing Product

Tulare - A new Tulare company with a product that has gained more than a little attention in recent months was among the 1,600 exhibitors at the 40th annual World Ag Expo at the International Agri-Center.

Tulare crop duster Wayne Wiechmann, owner of Valley Aviation, and longtime farmer/dairyman Joe Cardoza are co-founders of EZ Connector, which expects to start manufacturing a new kind of heavy-duty plug/socket combination in two to three weeks.

Called the EZ 7-Pin Universal Heavy Duty Plug, the product is designed for use in a variety of commercial and non-commercial activities in which vehicles haul trailers.

“It makes no difference if the towing vehicle is a tractor, truck or an RV and the towed vehicle is a fifth-wheel trailer, a tomato harvester, a horse trailer, a boat, a toy hauler or any other type of equipment,” Cardoza, the chief executive officer said.

The plug not only was among the featured new products at World Ag Expo, but got a rave review in the February issue of Dockside, a boating magazine.

“At $249, the patented EZ 7-Pin Universal Heavy Duty Plug may be the most expensive plug system on the market, but it's also the most unique, beefiest, simplest to use, safest, most corrosion-free, no-thought trailer plug you'll ever encounter,” the magazine reported.

Wiechmann, chief technical officer of the company, invented the plug after becoming frustrated with lights and electric brakes shorting out during fishing trips to Baja. He wanted something that was watertight and strain-resistant to protect the wiring during rough road or wet weather conditions.

Cardoza said he walked into Wiechmann's hangar one day and saw several different prototypes on a bench and felt they had potential for mass use. When he learned Wiechmann had had a series of bad experiences trying to get the product manufactured, he offered to put up the capital himself, he said.

They took the proto-types to the Long Beach Boat Show last October, shortly after forming their partnership, and got a good reception.

“There's very high interest in it,” Cardoza said, reporting the Coast Guard is using one of the proto-types and the trucking industry is urging the company to make a larger one for its use.

Besides being backward compatible with 4-, 5- and 6-pin uses, the product utilizes magnets to maintain a strong connection between the plug and socket and an o-ring-sealed plug/socket combination to prevent water and other corrosive elements from damaging the connection.

The company plans to start up production on a limited basis next month on East Walnut Avenue.

“We'll start with five stations [the plant has 36] just so we can oversee them and make sure everything is done right,” Cardoza said. “We can't have any defective products. We'll have zero tolerance for that.”

Once all the kinks in the manufacturing process are ironed out and the company has a good inventory, it will begin to take orders, Cardoza said.

Although they live in different parts of the state, Cardoza's daughters Jessica Levy and Jacqui Baker are involved with the business as directors of corporate communications and sales and marketing respectively.

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