My local track is running into some trouble as far as noise level and neighbors go. The track is being rented by my LHS and is a couple hundred yards away from houses. The people who live in those houses complain that we are too loud and are trying to get us shut down. When the LHS owner even began to build the track, he looked up the ordinances for noise level and we are below the max. We've turned the PA down and have done everything possible to try and make the homeowners possible. The police say we are doing nothing wrong. I'm just wondering if anyone has been through a similar situation and what you did to resolve the problem.

Our track isn't near houses, but if for you, if you are doing nothing wrong, the neighbors can go to hell. They have no right to try to shut you down.

If you are below the maximun decible level for the parish-I mean county then they can't do a thing legally. (As far as I know)

yes annie is correct, we are below the noise level, but as a curtisy at our track, we dont run nitro before 10 am and after 9pm, unless its race day, then we just race till the races are over.

I would guess the local residents might try to have the noise ordinance changed, whether it is time of day and/or noise levels. It sounds like you guys have tried to compromise by turning down your PA down, and I am assuming doing other things like asking people not to loiter too long after races, keep loud car stereos down, etc. I cannot think of anything that would not cost a ton of money, like a noise barrier type wall they line the freeways with. Your best bet is to make sure you have someone at their neighborhood meetings and town/county meetings to represent your side, so they do not get laws change without a fight. If it is on a ROAR or other circuit, maybe they can give you some creative advise.

Good luck and follow up on how things go.

what you could do is put a wood fence on the side toward the house and that will keep the noise down a little.

A shop on the other side of the state has been having similar issues except the neighbors of the track actually succeeded in getting them shut down, what the previous owner did was sell the business to someone else without telling them or something messed up like that. F-ed up but what the new owners ended up doing was run flashlights for awhile until they could get it into court to come up with a compromise (and sue the chit out of the previous owner I would imagine) and they are building a fence/wall to similar to what was mentioned above like the highway noise barriers. But it cost upwards of 10K I believe to have it done from what I heard.

Yea we don't race before 9 and thats still a little early for practicing for us. Sound barriers would be too expensive. I don't know what to do other then hope they don't change the sound ordinances.

I wonder if any kind of shrubs can help absorb or block sound?
I know it sounds kind of silly, but talk to an actual nursery and see what they say. If there is something that will work, I am sure you guys could do the work yourselves to save money, though trees/shrubs are not cheap either.

I would also suggest getting in good with the local PD, invite them over to watch and give them a soda or bottle of water. You want these guys on your side, as if it gets ugly, I am sure some of the locals may bring shovels down there after dark.

how about everyone having to run with those rubber exhaust things that go on the end of the stingers(plane guys use them i believe)
it may help soften the harshness of the exhaust note and be a temporary solution for now?

my local track was shut down cause people complaining about noise, but it was on council land so the booted us out and im happy cause now the guy who made the last track got bit of land and built a pernment track onsteads of make shift and it rocks.

Yeap, this is a tough one, its always hard trying to make everyone happy.
You can wait untill 10 am like someone else said but then think of the 3rd shift worker.
They get off at 7am and by the time they get home take a shower grab a bite to eat and crawl in bed then they hear nitro cars fire up.
I don't think theres anyway to make everyone happy.
You might try getting the surrounding neighbors involved in the sport, maybe everyone at the track pitch in and have a cookout
at the track, send out flyer's to the neighbors (free coke and hot-dogs) set aside 20 minutes of track time maybe have 8 or 9 old nitro cars gassed up and and let the neighbors and there kids drive the cars.

theres a new hobby shop by my house and when they first opened they cooked up abunch of hot-dogs for people eat if they wanted.

The cookouts sound like a good idea but I think the neighbors are too far gone to try and get on our side. The paper said that they hoped for rainy weekends so we couldn't race. Something else I think I should add is that when I say neighbors I mean they're in the vicinity. The closest house is a few hundred yards away. The only reason they can hear it so bad is that we're in a valley so I guess it's amplified.

A few hundred yards away?
I am sure they can hear it, but damn, it cannot be that loud. It sounds like you guys have some snobby neighborhood to deal with, I hope it all works out.

Again, show up to their neighborhood meetings, and listen in on what they are plotting for their next move. After you listen to a couple meetings, have witnesses there and you ask how you can make it better for them. Yes, you will probably get "just close it down and find somewhere else to run!" But, if you ask the question it will go a long way with the city if you tell them that you guys tried to talk to the neighborhood and find a resolution to the problem. The only problem with this plan, if you do get an answer other than the above, like something reasonable, be prepared to try their suggestions, or it will look bad on the track guys.

MT has it right. Have a rep show up to the town/county meetings. No need to say why you are there except you are interested in town/county happenings. If the neighbors show up and complain, you now know their angle and can deal with it at the next meeting. If you are obeying the laws, screw 'em. You have tried to be nice to them. Just smile and nod........[sm=teeth_smile.gif]

you can also take to a county metting and see if some one from the county can says if you have to close the track or not.

Any updates on this issue? Hopefully not, it would be nice if the neighbors stopped their crying and this became a non-issue. I am sure there are some building or wanting to build, that may be able to benift and save their track.

Well we have not had any club races, only our points series between us and Easly, SC. Our next points series race day is up here this weekend so we'll see how things go. Hopefully we won't have any trouble but you never know.