Ever accomodating, council has directed staff to come forward with recommendations to be accepted the December 7 meeting. That meeting will be held at the Leisureplex due to an anticipated large crowd. There will also be a recommendation regarding the rezoning in Crystal Beach so that the Molinaros can go ahead with their planned duo of twelve story towers on the Bay Beach Properties.BREAKING NEWS: The Molinaro Group's plan has changed. They're down to one tower and a re-branding of the whole project. No more "aging-in-place." We're now part of the Renaissance of Crystal Beach. However, the Molinaros will be given the so-called Bay Beach Properties, except the north side of Erie Road, by the town in exchange for "amenities" to be built on an old foundation on the beach. One good thing to come out of that is that finally, the Ministry of Natural Resources and other agencies will receive official documents about the proposal.
In the meantime, another race track proposal has been announced. This would be placed near the conjunction of the QEW and Sodom Road on the Niagara Falls side of the highway. Several years ago, a NASCAR-sanctioned track was proposed for that interchange. It was never realized due to what some say was opposition by the Town of Fort Erie. Nevertheless, the original backer of that speedway, Joe Zawadski, is still connected to NASCAR which prompted NASCAR to send a letter to the town and the promoter of the Canadian Motor Speedway advising them to refrain from using the NASCAR brand in their literature and presentations. (Too bad they didn't refrain in the video shown at council on November 23 as the NASCAR label was all over the CMS presentation. It's hard to make a presentation about a top notch speedway without the NASCAR label as it is the gold standard for that type of auto racing: The Bigs.)
Of the two proposals, I prefer the one in Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls is already set up as a tourist location. It has the hotels and campgrounds to accommodate racing fans and there is a lot to do besides racing. (I did find the remarks made by Toronto entrepreneur Lee Abrahamson mildly sexist when he said "...If mom and the daughters don’t like car racing, they can see the sights and go shopping while dad and the sons go watch the races. Then they can all be back together again in time for dinner. Everybody will be happy." I get his drift though.) This track would host a different style of racing: drag racing and other motorsport racing, not to compete with NASCAR. Events will take place a few times a year, not some 80 days as the CMS proposes.)
Both would be done in phases, but the CMS is much more ambitious - and costly. (And, according to experts in the field, the Not NASCAR track will not happen. The situation in Dubai is part of the reason.) There are no guarantees that once the CMS track is built, the proposed McMaster R&D facility will automatically follow. Or the proposed hotels and commercial enterprises. In addition to the usual concerns about noise and pollution, something else raises the caution flags for me: the big hurry. Don't like seeing the council bullied into making a decision because an offshore developer is "getting itchy." Meanwhile, the Niagara Falls track will encourage, not replace, the existing hotels, camp grounds and commercial enterprises in Niagara Falls. To me, that is true "synergy," not the tarted-up synergy that the CMS is proposing. Does anyone really think that visitors to the CMS track will stay in Fort Erie? Where would they stay? One hotel and a few motels? A couple of camping areas? If the CMS track is built, people will probably stay in Niagara Falls anyways. Until the "commercial phase" is complete, some ten years down the road.
Meanwhile, people in Fort Erie will have a noisy race track in their midst that will employ approximately 80 people full time. The rest will be part time, seasonal employees, like at Marineland. The McMaster R&D is a long way off and its employees will be academics and researchers from McMaster. Few if any local jobs except as support staff (cleaners, etc.)
Ideally, I would like the area to be auto race track free, but that isn't going to happen, it seems. So, the lesser of two evils, and the better plan and location, IMHO, is the one near the QEW in Niagara Falls.
