Speed Zone Expands

          The Speedway Redevelopment Commission intends to expand the current Speed Zone's tax-increment-financing district by less than 20 percent of its current size. Expansion areas include the mobile home parks on Georgetown Road and the commercial parcels including Church's Fried Chicken west to Cord Street.

SRC President Scott Harris said these ancillary areas will have an impact on the future development of the current 350 acres, so the commission thought it would be prudent to include the proposed area. The redevelopment commission hired American Consulting, now called American Structure Point, to create a master plan in 2006. The 350 acres were named the Speed Zone to represent some of Speedway's businesses involved with speed technology. The current Speed Zone boundaries are 16th Street, Olin Avenue, Tenth Street including Allison Transmission. The west boundary is Main Street.

By November, a public workshop was conducted to gather residents' input and ideas of how they would like to see the area developed. Three conceptual plans have now been unveiled for public review and comment.

These three vision summaries are available at Dawson's on Main Street, Speedway Public Library, Charlie Brown's Pancake and Steak House Restaurant, and the Speedway Redevelopment Commission's web site. The public is able to vote and make comments about these concepts at these sites. The voting should last for another two to three weeks.

Harris said the proposed expanded area is less than 20 percent, so it will not require the same process of town council approval. "It is essentially limited to the redevelopment commission," he said. The process will be discussed further at the January 15 meeting.

The other proposed expansion areas are northeast and southeast corners of Lynhurst Drive and Tenth Street. The northeast corner would extend east to Auburn Street.
This expansion is not to be confused with the second proposed allocation area that would include both retail shopping centers and the commercial areas on High School Road.

In other issues: a consumer preference survey was mailed to 4,500 residents within a 10 mile radius of Speedway to gather shopping habits and information. The survey will be used to help improve the town's retail areas.