Patrol Objects to Raceway Near Border
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SAN DIEGO — The U.S. Border Patrol has appealed a county Planning Commission decision that would allow San Diego Motor Racing Associates to build a 70,000-seat auto race track adjacent to the international border.
The Board of Supervisors is required to hear the matter within 60 days of the appeal, which was filed Friday.
The group backing the proposed $16-million, 426-acre project, which would parallel the U.S.-Mexico border half a mile east of the Otay Mesa border crossing, won Planning Commission approval May 16 despite Border Patrol objections.
In a letter to the supervisors, Alan Eliason, chief Border Patrol agent for the San Diego region, said the proposed track would attract smugglers of illegal aliens and drugs, as do existing border recreational areas.
“Our rationale in appealing the matter to you is simply that we believe the raceway-generated activity will be such an impediment to our operations that we will be significantly less successful in controlling the border than we are today,” Eliason wrote.
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