Court rules against track

A B.C. Supreme Court injunction will restrict noise levels at the Motoplex Speedway on Highway 97.

A Spallumcheen business has been ordered to cut down the noise.

A B.C. Supreme Court injunction will restrict noise levels at the Motoplex Speedway on Highway 97.

“The use of the race track must be subject to some limits,” said Justice Peter Rogers in his ruling.

“An order will go that the owner and occupier of the land…is enjoined from using that land for any purpose that will cause a level of noise exceeding 80 decibels averaged over a five minute period measured at the point on the perimeter of the land most closely proximate to Lawrence Heights.”

The owner of the Lawrence Heights development, as well as four residents of the neighbourhood, initiated the legal action because they claimed noise from the track was negatively impacting their lives.

The owner of the Motoplex, listed as Okanagan Aggregates, has been ordered to pay Lawrence Heights $100,000 in damages.

“That sum is meant to compensate 469 (Lawrence Heights) for the net rental income stream and profit on house placements that it would have realized on lots on the upper terrace prior to the trial, but which it did not earn owing to delay of development of the upper terrace caused by the nuisance,” wrote Rogers.

Rogers awarded three of the residents $7,500 in damages, while the fourth was awarded $5,000.

No one from the Motoplex Speedway or Okanagan Aggregates could be reached for comment.

 

Vernon Morning Star