Let’s head back to July 1966 when Delta council unanimously voted against a proposal to rezone 25 acres of agricultural land to allow an auto racetrack.
The site was located east of 112th Street and north of Ladner Trunk Road.
At a public hearing, several petitions and letters by residents opposed to the application were presented.
Representing over 100 homeowners of the Sunshine Hills Homeowners' Association, Russell Stanton told council of his group’s “absolute determination to go right up to the Supreme Court of Canada if necessary to stop this auto track from being built here.”
Stanton said a proposed soccer field in the middle of the track was “nothing more than sugar coating to make us swallow the rest.”
Conveying various concerns, particularly about the intense noise, Stanton also warned the track would have a disastrous impact on property values.
He also said the effect of the bylaw would be to please a non-resident operator for a group “of mostly undesirable transients to the determinant of the established residents.”
Another resident warned that allowing the track would set a dangerous precedent for “undesirable activities to want to move into Delta.”
Drag racing events would be held for a time at the Boundary Bay Airport site.
