Race City's popular Secret Street program will continue for another five years after City Council voted to honour Race City's existing lease

City Council’s 8-7 vote Monday afternoon to honour the lease with Race City until 2015 has been hailed by motorsport fans, but those closest to the issue are more cautious.  They warn that the process still depends on City officials, the bureaucrats who worked so hard over the past year to break the lease in the first place, to negotiate new conditions with Art Mackenzie, the race track’s owner.  If that fails to happen Race City could be right back where it started, forced to leave the 64 hectare parcel of land on 114 Avenue SE to make way for expansion of Shepard Landfill.

Ald. Ric McIver thinks a deal can be done.  He says that if Mr. Mackenzie comes to the negotiating table prepared to be reasonable, then he is confident City Hall will respond accordingly. 

Mr. Mackenzie is somewhat more circumspect, though still optimistic.  He has already spent many frustrating months talking to administrators about his lease and he wasn’t happy with their attitude the first time around.  During the course of many interviews with SE Calgary News he repeatedly made the point that City Hall has had no intention of negotiating a resolution to the dispute.  He has said municipal officials made it clear they wanted the Race City property for the landfill and there were no compromise positions. 

Eventually, he said, they just stopped taking his phone calls.  Now, these are the people he must negotiate with.

Rick Fransecone, head of the Calgary Motorsport Council, went one step further.  He attended Monday’s Council meeting and was not impressed with the presentations made by officials to the aldermen.  He believes bureaucrats were misleading aldermen to influence them to vote against Ald. McIver’s motion.

As an example, he said the elected officials were told the Shepard landfill is running out of space.  Mr. Fransecone says he has City documents that prove there is space available for another 30 years. 

Ald. McIver said in an interview with SECN that the City-owned property immediately east of Race City could be used for the storm water retention ponds required for the landfill.  Officials have estimated it would cost an extra $3 million, but Ald. McIver says the added expense would be worthwhile because Race City is such a large “economic generator” for the southeast economy. 

The lease dispute between the City of Calgary and Race City stems from a late renewal notice in 2000.  Mr. Mackenzie said he was told at the time by his City lease manager that submitting the document two weeks tardy was not an issue.  He notes that since then the City has behaved as if his lease was in effect, including cashing his lease payment cheques.

SECN obtained a signed copy of the lease.  The document is in effect until 2025 and requires Mr. Mackenzie to submit a notice of renewal every five years. 

Circumstances changed, he says, when the department of waste and recycling decided it needed the Race City land for storm water retention ponds.  Mr. Mackenzie says he offered to compromise with the department by integrating the ponds with a new road race course, but was told such a design would be “inconvenient” for City workers.

He also notes that one of the provisions of the lease already allows for the City to build waste water management ponds on the property.  The City has the legal authority to build the ponds and he was prepared to work with them to do just that. 

According to Mr. Mackenzie, if Monday’s motion had not passed he was prepared to defend his lease in court.  He believes the lease has always been valid and until waste and recycling decided it needed the Race City property for landfill expansion, the City has always acted as if the lease was valid.

ART MACKENZIE AND RICK FRANSECONE DISCUSS COUNCIL’S VOTE TO HONOUR RACE CITY LEASE

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