The Badlands Motorsports Resort has made its last lap for approval after site development plans and formal applications for subdivision were submitted by the company late last month.
A comprehensive site development plan and formal applications for subdivision for the planned $400 million dollar roadracing and tourism resort was filed with Kneehill County on April 19, with final approvals expected over the next few months and construction hoped to begin later this year.
Director and CFO James Zelazo tells The Mail that, while the final document submission is a welcome milestone, the road there took longer than the company expected.
“We thought we’d have been finished at this point,” Zelazo said. “There were some bumps along the way that probably shouldn’t have happened.”
Groups of landowners in Rosebud, along with Wheatland County, had opposed development of Badlands Motorsports Resort, which is on both Kneehill and Wheatland County land about 5 kilometres from Rosebud, due to concerns over noise pollution and county road usage.
Wheatland County filed an inter-municipal dispute through the Alberta Municipal Government Board (MGB) over worries they would responsible for maintaining roadways due to increased traffic in their borders. In May 2015, the MGB ruled that upgrades to access roads to and from Highway 9 would be made at the Badland Motorsports’ expense and done to county standards.
Zelazo said that the Badlands Motorsports Resort, a country-club style resort featuring two European-style road courses with a combined track length near 10 km for non-spectator recreational driving and instruction, will be built on Kneehill County land, with the remaining sections of land on Wheatland County planned to be preserved for recreational purposes, such as a campground.
In total the company owns 525 acres of property in the southwest corner of Kneehill County.
The first phase of development will be the road courses and multi-purpose building which will be the primary centre of operations and administration, including food services, retail and repair areas, as well as vehicle inspections for safety and noise controls. The hotel, clubhouse and residential properties will be developed in later phases.
The project’s estimated $400 million price tag makes it the largest tourism development currently proposed in Alberta, the company says.