Developer has yet to apply for permits

The latest word from Chino Valley Town management is that the developer intending to build a raceway in close proximity to the Chino Valley Yavapai Community College center has yet to apply for various permits that will start the process going.  It is thought that his fear of investing thousands of dollars in permits, etc. and having the College veto the project after the Town approves it is just too risky.

Recall the Governing Board Chair, without formal agendized approval from the Board, refused to allow Chino Valley Town management to make a presentation to it about the raceway.  Also recall that the College has the power because of a 2002 agreement to veto at any time a raceway near the Center.

The Governing Board inaction has irritated, if not angered, a number of people in Chino Valley.

College opposed raceway project in 2002; Current Governing Board refuses to cooperate with Chino Valley Council on 2017 proposal by denying town opportunity to make a presentation or decide whether it opposes or favors the project

Any cooperation with the Chino Valley Town Council on the question of developing a raceway about a half mile from the Yavapai Community College Chino Valley Center was rejected by the Governing Board at its March 7, 2017 meeting.  The decision came as Chino Valley was asking to make a presentation to the Governing Board in April about the proposed project and ask the Board  to determine whether it would veto  the project.  An intergovernmental agreement between the College and the Town of Chino Valley, which was executed in 2002, provides the Governing Board with a veto over construction of a raceway near the College’s Chino Valley Center.  The Governing Board has not changed its view of non-cooperation since the March decision.

This is not the first time the College has been embroiled in the question of whether a raceway should be located at the Old Home Manor property. In 2002 a developer sought to build a raceway  near where the Center is located.  John Morgan, associate dean for the Chino Valley Center back in 2002, told the local newspapers that the college may reconsider its plans to expand the Center  using $3.5 million of a $69.5 million bond passed by voters in November 2000 if the Chino Valley Town Council approves the racetrack.  In a telephone interview, he told a reporter from the Daily Courier that “The way the racetrack has been proposed is questionable in its compatibility. It is in conflict to what Yavapai College has planned for future growth out here.”

In a letter to the Town Council in 2002, then Community College President Doreen Daley said: “Given the proximity of Yavapai College’s Agribusiness and Science Technology Center to the projected site, building and operating this racetrack would expose the college to a number of negative factors. Equine science is a core of the agribusiness technology program, and with our plans to switch a great deal of our equine training/riding classes to the weekends beginning this summer, the track poses a threat to both animals and humans. Additional noise from operations and intrusions due to sound amplification systems would be impediments to student learning. There is no doubt the sound will carry great distances across a wide-open Chino Valley, which does not have natural buffers.”  (Sources: Daily Courier, Feb 5, 2002; Feb 12, 2002.) Read More→