ECONOMY IS GARLAND OFF TO THE RACES?

After parimutuel betting was approved a year ago, it was assumed that race track promoters would be crawling all over each other to build the first big track for the Metroplex. Instead, things have been strangely quiet. But in October, the city of Garland sent the city of Dallas a letter asking if Dallas would be interested in a joint effort between the two cities, and an as-yet unnamed private party, to build a race track on a 420-acre tract. The land lies within Dallas city limits, but it’s almost surrounded by Garland, Sunnyvale, and Lake Ray Hubbard near where 1-30 crosses the lake.

Mike Norwood, director of economic development for Dallas, says he can’t imagine Dallas spending any money on the race track, but that the city would certainly go along with it if somebody else bankrolled the project. “Most of the economic benefit of a race track at that site would be for stores and businesses in Garland and Sunnyvale, not Dallas,” he says. He also points out that it would be at least a sixty-mile drive for people in west Fort Worth to get to that location, and he doubts the Texas Racing Commission would approve a site for the Metroplex that is not more centrally located.

But Jeff Muzzy, assistant city manager for Garland, says, “There’s a whole lot of positives for both cities if that race track is built out there.” He says that the proposition is still in the “what if” stage, but that Garland is going to keep pursuing it. And Norwood agrees that the site has a great emotional appeal, “It would be a beautiful place for a race track,” he says, “with the grandstands facing the lakein the distance.”