MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - With the $34 million Rocky Mountain Motorsports (RMM) facility now open just east of Carstairs, Mountain View County Division 1 councillor Dwayne Fulton says the municipality will continue to work with the company and nearby neighbour landowners to address noise concerns.
The facility held an official opening on Sept. 1. The car racing recreation and training track is located at the intersection of Highway 2 and Highway 581 on a 385.64-acre parcel.
“We are still currently working with RMM to try to address surrounding neighbour’s concerns with noise levels and frequency and so on. We are also working with the surrounding landowners on this,” said Fulton.
“We had a recent meeting with landowners and they brought up their concerns and experiences with the track during the testing phases and the different vehicles on the track and the sound that was emitted.”
The landowners wanted the county to be aware of their concerns and “the impact on them,” he said.
County administration has also been working with RMM “to find what other strategies may be at play to help mitigate those challenges going forward.”
The development permit for the facility was approved by council itself as the property is designated direct control district, he said.
The permit itself was issued in August 2020, with construction starting on Sept. 1, 2020.
“There were numerous conditions in there about sound measurement and sound levels, and now we are trying to work through how the neighbours are affected,” he said.
Dominic Young is the president of Rocky Mountain Motorsports. During the Sept. 1 official opening he said the new facility will be a benefit to the Mountain View County and Carstairs communities.
“I’m sure the town of Carstairs is already getting benefit,” he said. “There are a lot of guys buying gas and food there, and some of the local outfits cater lunches out here.”
Asked if nearby neighbours have voiced concerns about sound coming from the facility, he said, “There are certainly two or three households that are not happy, but I think 99.9 per cent of the county is very happy to have us.”
The core construction budget for the facility is $21 million out of a total of $34 million being invested, he said. The 3.5 kilometre, 16-turn track features 36 metres of elevation change.
“It’s been a decade in the works,” he said. “It is exciting and a joy for me and everyone involved. We’ve had a lot of people help.”
Young says he has driven the track several times already and “it is fantastic. It’s a driver’s track. It is relatively complex but it has great flow between segments of the track. It really is a world-class facility.”
There are currently about 160 RMM members, with room for about an additional 160, he said.
The track is a split model, with both club members and the general public able to use it, he said.
“When it is a members’ day, it is a members’ day,” he said. “We do have almost 50 per cent of our track time open to the public through different means.
“One is through private track rentals and that could be car clubs, motorcycle club or an individual who puts on track days. So that gives access to the public, and our performance driving schools are all open to the public. We’ve established a school here, with a couple different levels of driving.”
As well as providing recreational driving opportunities for club members and the general public, the facility will also be used as a test facility for tire and vehicle makers, he noted.
Car owner and club member Ryan Ockey brought his Koenigsegg Regera, a Swedish hyper-car, to the facility for the official opening. The $2,000,000-plus vehicle is capable of going from zero to 400 kilometres per hour to zero in 23 seconds.
He called the opening of the new facility “super exciting.”
“The whole racing scene has been missing a track and this is filling a huge need. It is way safer and better than the old Race City Speedway (in Calgary),” said Ockey. “We finally have a world-class facility here in Alberta.”
Future plans at the facility include the construction of a clubhouse, Young said.
