Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park Meets City Requirements During First Annual Review

Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park will help the city retain its reputation as the “Action Sports Capital of the World,” at least for the foreseeable future.

Park management recently underwent the first in what will be an annual review process by the City of Lake Elsinore Planning Commission. Through the process it was decided the park is meeting or will soon meet all its conditions of operation, according to Grant Taylor, director of community development for the city.

The off-road motorsports park has been operating on a conditional use permit on and off since 1998 on 93 acres at 20700 Cereal Street. Since 2011, the venue has been managed by Vision Quest Enterprises of Wildomar.

As part of the recent review, city staff checked the property on Oct. 10 and determined there were two outstanding “critical” issues that need to be completed: final grading approval and approval of analysis that demonstrates the impact the track is having on the “flood volume capacity at the lake’s back basin,” Taylor wrote in a staff report.

“The Commission reviewed all the conditions and expressed their concerns to the applicant,” Taylor said following an Oct. 16 public meeting on the issue.

Vision Quest’s consulting engineer has reviewed city corrections to the grading plan and will be making a fourth submittal, according to Taylor, and the company’s plan to address flooding potential will also be submitted to the Public Works Department in the near future.

City staff reported that park management had “substantially complied” to about 40 conditions of operation such as paving the Cereal Street entrance and providing an alternate entrance off of Mission Trail.

The facility is also nearing full compliance with other environmental mitigations, such as having two water tanks onsite as well as water trucks; providing parking attendants; posting no smoking signs; providing fire extinguishers and ensuring trash and debris is regularly removed.

“Commissioners directed staff and the operators to ‘work together and get it done as quickly as possible.’ Staff will monitor and follow up and make sure that they do so,” Taylor said.

Environmental issues such as noise and dust were brought up, not only by Commissioners but by three members of the public who spoke. A fourth citizen expressed full support for the venue, Taylor noted.

“The main concerns from the commission were dust and noise from special events,” Taylor told Patch. “It is a high-impact facility and we want to mitigate impact on neighboring properties.”

At the same time, he said the motorsports facility has been “a great benefit to the community.”

“Businesses are doing well ... especially during big events like Lucas Oil (Off Road Racing Series),” Taylor said.

Patch also reached out to park management about their take on how the review went.  

“They (the city) are good people to work with,” said Chad Azevedo, general manager of Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park. “We are learning what we are doing right and wrong and how the city works.”

Further, since the park is located on land planned for eventual development, Azevedo said Vision Quest and the city are discussing relocation sites.

“There is a tentative tract map that has been here for many years,” Azevedo said. “It something in the back of our minds but it is not our main goal right now.”

When and if it comes to that, Azevedo said they would seek to remain within the City of Lake Elsinore.

“We get people from all the over the world who come to our park,” Azevedo said. “It makes us feel great when we fill up every hotel room and restaurant in the city.” --By Maggie Avants