Zoning around Toyota plant

[Pacecar]

See article:

 

"A 'Master Planning' Experiment Gone Wrong

 

http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/articl...ong-4102705.php

[Definitive]

Those two gentlemen took a chance on that property investment. They seem to have come up on the wrong end of things.Giving them imagined value for that property would be sympathetic,but it would be wrong.

If Chris and Brian had only 50 people show up to watch 10 race cars in October should the city give them what they could only imagine they would have made?

If some entity promised or guaranteed those two a certain value on their land after so many years,that entity needs to pay up,not the city.

Did they use that agricultural allowance as a good reason to make an investment that they seemingly couldn't afford?If that entitlement didn't exist,would they have a problem right now?

Huge companies like Toyota have been building factories for a long time now.I'm sure they have very good reasons for wanting a buffer zone.(closed race tracks)

I really don't think the city cares about individuals like those two land owners.They need more revenue to offset the over spending they do.(Streetcar to nowhere).

[Definitive]

By (closed race tracks),I mean,if only they all had buffer zones.

[JamesHigdon]

I read that article yesterday and am still trying to figure out exactly what it means for the track. As far as I can tell the city takes Toyota's threat to close the plant if the 2 mile buffer is breached very seriously and SAS is squarely in the "buffer zone" rendering the property virtually useless for anything but what it is or a farm. I can tell you that in "City South" there are certainly large swaths of property that are more or less abandoned and serve little to no commercial purpose which would seem to be a bigger reason for low land prices then anything else.

 

This article strikes me as little more then a puff piece trying to make these gentlemen seem like victims in this situation which I won't judge one way or the other. The city can review the zoning in the area all they want but if push comes to shove and Toyota does leave because of a breach of the buffer zone the properties will most likely be worth what they where before Toyota moved in minus the recession of the past half-decade AND the specter of a city that will screw around with a large job maker.

 

The larger issue (in my opinion) has little to do with what SAS is zoned as seeing as how the property (and many around it for that matter) have old oil wells with shallow caps and would cost millions to render usable for anything other then exactly what any of the properties are right now. You can add to that list leaded race fuels, decades of area-wide light industrial, farming and the likely water table issue due to the surrounding junkyards...they aren't called "Super Fund" sites because they are cheap to cleanup...

[ProTree]

spend 1.2 bil dollars building a plant then threaten to close it.that's smart thinking,lol

[ebco2468]

if toyota wants a 2 mile buffer zone then they should buy it for what the people want for it or shut the fxxk up and let the land owners due what they want they paid for the land this is what is breaking down or liberty's being bought out by foreign countries....

[JamesHigdon]

if toyota wants a 2 mile buffer zone then they should buy it for what the people want for it or shut the fxxk up and let the land owners due what they want they paid for the land this is what is breaking down or liberty's being bought out by foreign countries....

 

There are MANY sides to that argument.

 

First, the land is worth near to nothing without Toyota there so much of this is a catch 22, you take away Toyota and you take away the value. The city council, our elected city council, agreed to the 2-mile buffer zone to draw Toyota in and now people want to go sideways on it because the market didn't mature as predicted? The land owners that where there BEFORE Toyota are seeing no real increase or decrease in value or usability, it is only the speculators that bought the land AFTER the buffer zone had been agreed to that are being hurt. The buffer zone was no secret then and it sure isn't now so why the uproar besides speculators not getting their perceived due? Anyone that owned the land BEFORE Toyota moved in could have sold at a profit when the market was ripe at the time of building and made a serious chunk but those who chose to stay chose their fate.

 

Second, if the City decides to renege on the buffer zone then Toyota has every right to pack up and move-on. Again, the land is near to valueless without Toyota and the perceived value of the land is all tied to the plant which is gone without the buffer zone.

 

Third, Toyota isn't some Chinese-state funded company, it's a free-market company practicing free market capitalism. I am as nationalistic as anyone in this country but when OUR automakers are RUN by the unions I love the idea of "foreign" makes setting up in southern right to work states. Toyota hasn't bought anyone's liberty, they setup a legitimate deal with our elected city council and have provided employment for thousands for years. Toyota has pumped money into our economy, not the other way around.

 

Fourth and very selfishly, if by some chance the buffer zone goes away and the plant stays the track is flat gone, very simple. Land values will go up and the track will immediately be unprofitable. If you want to see racing at SAS pray that our city council holds up their end of the bargain OR that Toyota stands their ground and moves on if the buffer zone is breached.