Calistoga residents have soundly rejected a special tax to purchase the fairgrounds that sits in the middle of this Napa Valley town, leaving the future of the historic but shuttered Calistoga Speedway unsettled for the third time in four years.
In a monthlong mail-in election limited to about 2,700 city residents that ended Tuesday night, preliminary vote tallies show 731 residents (67 percent) voted to reject a city-sponsored measure to issue nearly $26 million in bonds to buy the 72-acre fairgrounds, which includes a golf course and buildings for community events in addition to the half-mile speedway. The measure garnered 347 (32 percent) votes in support, which under California law, required a two-thirds approval for passage.
“It’s the result I expected, but I was hoping I was wrong,” said Tommy Hunt, president of HMS Promotions, which has promoted sprint car events at the track for the last decade.
Measure E was the city’s third failed effort to purchase the fairgrounds, which is owned by Napa County, since the non-profit Napa County Fair Ass’n went bankrupt four years ago after operating the facility since 1935. The bankruptcy reverted the responsibility for operating the fairgrounds back to Napa County, which promptly shut down the entire facility, including the race track, while it searched for a buyer.
Calistoga’s first effort to purchase the fairgrounds faltered when a recession cratered the bond market just as it was preparing a bid. A second effort was wiped out by massive wildfires in the Napa Valley that drained the city’s finances, which rely heavily on tourism and hotel taxes.
Calistoga’s effort to purchase the fairgrounds has been an emotional issue for local residents in a tourist-oriented town, who consider the property a town square of sorts, where civic groups met, artists showed off their work, locals played golf, and where the local high school played football.
Rescuing the historic race track, one of the few half-miles in the West that hosted its first race in 1938, is equally an emotional issue for race fans, nearly all of whom come from outside Napa County on race weekends.
“Some of us had no idea how popular the racetrack is with fans,” confessed Calistoga Mayor Don Williams. “The City Council got hundreds of letters from race fans, more than we have received on any other issue.”
Nonetheless, the election was limited to people who actually live in Calistoga, a small town in the north end of the infamous Napa Valley wine country.
Is there a plan B?
“Well, plan A didn’t’ work, so I guess we go on to plan B,” said Hunt. That raises a question of whether there is a plan B and if the city will make another effort buy to the fairgrounds.
“I still believe there is great interest in revitalizing the fairgrounds and that includes the race track,” said Williams in an interview with SPEED SPORT the morning after the first vote tallies were publicized. “My guess is that the property tax was not the best way to go,” he said, as a financing mechanism.
In fact, at a pre-election community forum, some opponents of Measure E expressed support for the city obtaining the fairgrounds but expressed unhappiness over the way the property tax was structured to repay the bond over 40 years. It levied the lowest cost to individual homeowners, many of whom are retirees, who would have paid a couple of hundred dollars a year. The highest costs were levied on business owners, such as restaurants and hotel properties, which would have assessed an additional thousands of dollars year.
“Our common ground is we want a better deal,” said a restaurant and hotel owner who has lived in Calistoga for 37 years. “We don’t fault the city, but they were dealt a bad hand,” he added, by a former county CEO who took advantage of the city’s desire and insisted on an unrealistically high value for the property beyond what it is zoned for.
Some things have changed in the last year that suggest a new deal could be reached. The hard bargain-driving county CEO has since been fired. There is new management in the county and two newly elected county supervisors have expressed their desire for the city to take over ownership of the fairgrounds.
“I have appointments with county supervisors over the next two weeks to discuss some alternatives,” said Williams.
That potentially could include a much different purchase price and perhaps financing through a tax that tourists pay for hotel rooms, which some opponents of the latest ballot measure have proposed.
In the meantime, the historic Calistoga Speedway, which has hosted the World of Outlaws, NARC sprint cars, USAC midgets and sprint cars, and is home to the Louie Vermeil Classic, sits behind a fence, where it has been silent for four years and fans not knowing when — or if —it will see another green flag.