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FeedMaking noise
Construction has begun on the proposed racetrack and auto research complex that will rehab Cooper Stadium. Developers and local officials hope the complex will give life to a quiet neighborhood. Residents just hope they won’t hear it.
Tessa Berg Photos
On a chilly November morning, Cooper Stadium is as silent and still as its cemetery neighbors. Padlocked gates close off the empty parking lots, their abandoned concrete surfaces veined with cracks and faded paint lines. Rust is starting to show on the underside of silver grandstands. Overgrown, browning bushes wind up outfield fences.
A block away, the steady hum of traffic crossing the nearby Interstate 70 overpass gains volume as the day moves into rush hour. Along Mound Street, auto repair and tire shops clatter into life. Residents living south of Mount Calvary Cemetery step outside to rev cold car engines and scrape frost from windshields.
It has been three years since the Franklinton neighborhood echoed with the roar of fans inside Cooper Stadium, hushed in 2009 when the Clippers moved to Huntington Park in the Arena District. But soon, the silence will be broken by high-performance cars rumbling and screeching around a half-mile racetrack with room for more than 8,500 onlookers to cheer for the notoriously loud sport. The planned Sports Pavilion and Automotive Research Complex (SPARC), due to open in 2014, will also feature an 8.5-acre paved infield and karting courses elsewhere on the 47-acre site.
The $40 million project has been a vision of developer Bill Schottenstein’s Arshot Investment Corp. since 2008, when he first announced plans for SPARC. He purchased the stadium from Franklin County for $3.4 million. Ground was finally broken in late October following the announcement of two anchor tenants—high-end European car dealership Midwestern Auto Group and green nonprofit Clean Fuels Ohio. Construction is scheduled to continue through winter.
From the start, plans roused excitement from local officials who still hope the development will live up to its intent as a renowned automotive development complex, attracting new businesses to the area and reviving the neighborhood. But the announcement also generated uproar from area residents concerned about increased noise and a potential drop in property values.
Redevelop Our Area Responsibly (ROAR) Columbus formed in 2008 in opposition to SPARC. The coalition of Franklinton and Columbus-area residents and local associations, such as the German Village Business Community, pushed to see the former ballpark revamped into something quieter, more befitting of the urban neighborhood. ROAR argued there is no other motorsports complex in the country built in such a highly dense residential area because of the potential for noise upwards of 70 decibels (the equivalent of standing next to a running vacuum cleaner).
The group disbanded after efforts failed to stop SPARC, but, says member Regina Acosta Tobin, its concerns remain. With each area house sale, Tobin, co-owner of Re/MAX Metro Plus, routinely includes a disclosure form indicating how far a property is from the SPARC site and stating: “Seller makes no representations regarding the potential impact the racetrack may have on the property you are interested in purchasing.”
Schottenstein counters that the traffic noise from I-70 is louder than what will be generated by the racing at SPARC. Still, Arshot in 2010 hired Massachusetts-based Harris Miller Miller & Hanson Inc. (HMMH) to perform a noise study as part of the permitting process. In its report, HMMH concluded that two walls around the track, one 35 feet high and the other 25 to 30 feet, would adequately serve as noise barriers for the types of cars using the Cooper Stadium facility—quieter vehicles than those running in NASCAR races.
But The Noise Consultancy of New Brunswick, New Jersey, commissioned by Green Lawn Cemetery, found much in the HMMH report questionable. In its review, The Noise Consultancy accused HMMH of underestimating the noise levels of racing cars, not including worst-case scenarios, and not considering the sound produced by concerts or a public address system. The review concluded: “There are large areas in Franklinton and almost the entirety of Green Lawn Cemetery where racing noise will interfere with conversations. … There will be times, when certain classes of vehicles are racing under favorable meteorological conditions, that racing will be audible at distances up to 8,000 feet and beyond.” That radius includes all of downtown Columbus.
Birdwatchers have also expressed concern about the effect SPARC might have on the bird population in Green Lawn Cemetery, adjacent to Cooper Stadium. The concern is that noisy race cars may disrupt migratory patterns and mating of birds living in the densely treed surrounding that’s been designated an Important Bird Area by the National Audubon Society.
Stefanie Coe, president of the Southwest Civic Association, was initially concerned about SPARC’s impact on the community she represents. But after reviewing the sound studies and learning about the proposed noise barriers, she concluded the project could be done without harming the community. Coe, now on the SPARC advisory board, sees economic benefits happening already, noting a new Tim Hortons nearby and a neighborhood shopping center under construction.
Some of the other perks Schottenstein promises are the creation of hundreds of full- and part-time jobs and a charitable foundation, funded by SPARC ticket sales, established to provide academic scholarships, vocational training and other career opportunities to area residents. Both the Southwest Civic Association and the Franklinton Board of Trade have endorsed Arshot’s plans.
THE POSITIVE POTENTIAL OF SPARC DEPENDS ON WHO YOU ASK.
SPARC will accommodate more than just racing, Schottenstein says. Plans are to use the track for concerts, exhibitions, corporate events, driving schools, auto shows and cycling events. He hopes there eventually will be an onsite hotel and several restaurants—but there is no word on who would own and operate them.
“[SPARC] will add a whole new dimension to Columbus sports,” says Linda Logan, executive director of the Greater Columbus Sports Commission and a SPARC advisory board member, anticipating the complex could also host action sports like Gravity Games and X Games.
But it’s the research and development aspect of SPARC that attracted tenant Clean Fuels Ohio, a nonprofit promoting cleaner fuels and more efficient vehicles. The center’s goal is to concentrate on next-generation automotive technologies, including new vehicle designs, alternative fuel systems and other green technologies.
“It positions us well to get a lot more industry and government fleets interested in our approach to fuel savings,” says Sam Spofforth, Clean Fuels Ohio executive director. He also envisions using the SPARC track for what he calls green driver training. “The way people drive can have a great impact on their fuel consumption. We anticipate using this track to teach drivers how to conserve fuel.”
Although it hasn’t been determined how the Ohio State University Center for Automotive Research (CAR) will be involved with SPARC, CAR director Giorgio Rizzoni mentions two possibilities: a cooperative venture with Columbus State Community College in an auto service training program, and developing a business model for a racing team. He emphasizes, however, that planning is at an early stage.
Ron Landthorn of TechColumbus anticipates a large program for accident avoidance, as well as racing against the stopwatch on an infield asphalt autocross course. It would be a safe, off-street place to drive cars, explains the SPARC advisory board member.
“[SPARC presents] an intersection between auto research, track events and vocational opportunities,” says Landthorn, who was involved with a motorsports racing school in California for years. “There’s a high demand for [training in auto mechanics].”
Probably the biggest promoter of SPARC besides Schottenstein is Mark Brentlinger, president and CEO of Midwestern Auto Group (MAG), currently the only other tenant of SPARC. “My cars and a race track—it’s a combination made in heaven,” he says, referring to the more than a dozen European cars MAG sells—Ferrari, Maserati and Porsche, to name a few—built to drive at high speeds. The partnership at the track will allow MAG customers to test cars at speeds that are illegal on highways.
In his agreement with Arshot, Brentlinger’s customers can use the track for free—an incentive the car dealer couldn’t pass up. MAG will be the only dealer there, too, an exclusivity that he says has a hefty price tag. “It’s not inexpensive for me to participate,” Brentlinger says. “I have no idea how I’m going to monetize this.”
Brentlinger intends to take advantage of the planned building’s visibility from I-70—and the more than 140,000 vehicles that pass by daily, according to Schottenstein. A different car brand will be displayed on rotating platforms on each of the five or six floors of the glass-walled facility with an LED-illuminated vista on the back wall and spotlights on each car at night.
But racing remains the biggest draw for SPARC. That got a big boost early in December, when NASCAR driver and two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip became a public ambassador for SPARC, making the Ohio facility a second home for his racing team, Michael Waltrip Racing.
“We are thrilled to have this opportunity to participate in the SPARC project,” Waltrip said in a press release. “Being located in the heart of Ohio, a market largely untapped by NASCAR, will provide Michael Waltrip Racing and its sponsors with high-impact exposure to millions of current and new racing fans.”
SPARC is also a chance to move with the way racing is changing, says SPARC advisory board member Robert Lane of CAR Technologies (a spinoff of the Ohio State University Center for Automotive Research), which is designing an electric-powered car that emits no gas fumes and makes little noise.
“The large venues accommodating hundreds of thousands of people—the NASCAR circuit—are on the decline,” he says. He predicts off-road motor-cross races of electric-powered cars could come along as early as two years from now. “There’s a move to shorter, more interesting races with more turning. SPARC is right on the crest of the wave carrying this sea change in the industry.”
Sold on the project from the start, Franklinton Board of Trade executive director Trent Smith says despite the initial opposition from residents, area businesses are excited over the prospect of SPARC.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he says. “We’re not naive. We know there will be some noise. But the OSU [Center for Automotive Research] made it a slam dunk. We’re hoping that the facility will be world-class.”
Dennis Read is a freelance writer in Columbus.
