HEARING SET FOR PROPOSED RACE TRACK LAWSUIT

  

A hearing date has been set later this month in the 21st District Court of Washington County in the lawsuit over a proposed race track near Chappell Hill.

Judge Caron Campbell will hear the reply from the defendants in the case, Charles Von Schmidt and Club Track Holdings, on Thursday, March 26th at 10 a.m. in the 21st District Court of Washington County.  A group of Chappell Hill landowners filed a civil suit in late January seeking a permanent injunction to stop the race track from being built, saying it would devalue their property.  They include Helen and Chad Phillips, Charles and Danielle Fridge, OCF Cattle Company owned by Matt and Christi Strock, Ron and Lynn Holder, and J.T. Davis, owner of Dingo Ranch.  The proposed site is on 450 acres of the Mel Acres Ranch just south of US 290 in Chappell Hill.

Attorneys for Von Schmidt and Club Track Holdings are seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed, saying that no actual damages have occurred.  Attorney Audrey Manito has filed an answer to the lawsuit saying “no land has been purchased, no road racing circuit has been built, and no road racing circuit plans have been finalized.”  And that the landowners’ opposition to Von Schmidt’s acquisition and development of the land “are based on indefinite plans, rumors and hypotheticals they have conjured up themselves”.

21st District Judge Carson Campbell will preside over the hearing on Thursday, March 26th at 10 a.m. in the Washington County courthouse in Brenham.