Bike track noise, site anger neighbors

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The future of a multimillion-dollar BMX racing facility is uncertain as Albuquerque city councilors respond to concerns from neighbors who say they were left in the dust when the city changed its location.

Now councilors are considering modifying or moving the bike track and its massive structure in response to those concerns.

“The key thing now is really to see what can be done to fix the problem,” Albuquerque City Council President Isaac Benton told KRQE News 13.

The BMX dirt-track facility opened three years ago at Avenida Cesar Chavez and Buena Vista SE just east of Isotopes Park in southeast. It's one of the largest BMX facilities in the nation.

Benton said city administrators made a bad move by failing to notify the nearby residents when it changed a site plan approved by neighbors and the city’s Environmental Planning Commission in early 2005.

The original plan had the BMX facility sitting 500 feet farther west from the spot it occupies now.

“There’s clearly a nuisance that has been created for the folks that live right here,” Benton said referring to the homes less than 50 yards from the facility’s grandstand, speakers and dirt r racing track.

“It just doesn’t make sense,” neighbor Sam Baldonado said. “It’s very confusing as to why it was built back up here next to our house.”

Noise from racing events and blowing dust from the dirt track are included in Baldonado’s long list of complaints.

“When they’re having an event you can hear all the people screaming,” Baldonado said. “There’s always a fine film of dirt and dust all over the windows and cars.”

Residents think the city pulled a fast one by changing the approved plan without giving them any warning, he added.

Neighbors sued and settled with the city a short time after the facility opened three years ago, but the problems persisted, according to Benton.

“There’s just no buffer between those people and this facility,” he added.

The original site plan was modified in late 2005 to better serve the grand plan for the bike park, which currently includes the BMX facility and plans for an oval, hard-surfaced velodrome track.

City planners were not required to notify the neighborhood when they presented a revised site plan to the city’s Development Review Board, according to Planning Director Richard Dineen.

“I think probably what I know today and if I’d have known then, I would have taken the time to notice them,” Dineen told News 13.

The plan was changed after a set of tennis courts were moved from the location to another city park clearing the current site for the BMX facility.

Efforts are now underway to address the neighborhood’s concerns, according to city administrators.

“We don’t want to play the role of the big, cold government entity that doesn’t care about its citizens," Mark Motsko, spokesman for the Municipal Development Department, said. "That is absolutely not the case.”

Current modifications include applying a new chemical spray to keep the track dirt from drifting, modifying the location of the facility’s loudspeakers and possibly buying a new, quieter start gate for races.

But the modifications could go way beyond small modifications. City councilors passed a bill in early May calling for a study to see what it would cost to tear down the facility and move it to the spot originally approved. City administrators say it could cost as much as $6 million.

“In this current economic situation we’re not sure that’s the best use of taxpayer money,” Motsko said.

Benton disagreed.

“It’s all relative,” Benton said. “I think probably if you lived across the street here you’d think it was worth it.

"It would have made a big difference to put it where it was approved.”

According to the nonprofit group that operates the track, tearing it down would be too costly and a big risk if rebuilding funds aren’t available.

“To tear it down and move it, I honestly don’t think that taxpayers are going to want to do that,” Duke City BMX track manager Liz Fernandez said.

The track not only serves BMX racers but adults and children who can use the park to ride, practice or play and even rent bikes and safety equipment.

“Our kids, this is what they call home,” Fernandez said.

City councilors are expected to take on the issue again at a council meeting next month.