Site suggestions thread

[PedalFaster]

As mentioned in another thread, this year will be the last year we'll have access to the YYC lot.

The club executive has efforts underway to identify and secure alternative sites, but I figured it would also be helpful to start a thread soliciting suggestions. Seen an appropriately sized and lightly occupied lot on your travels? Post it here.

PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT APPROACH ANY SITES YOURSELF. We want to approach sites in an organized, professional, and consistent manner, since we'll likely only have one shot at convincing any given location.

Some sites that have already been suggested (so no need to repeat them):

• McMahon Stadium
• Bieseker Airport
• Every other airport within 250 km of Calgary
• North Hill Centre Sears
• Max Bell Arena

[nnywg]

I've said it before but I'll say it again - we need to make friends with Tsuu T'ina.  They are open for business, not bound by city bylaws for noise or Nimbys, and have lands right on the ring road.  Maybe even an extension to the Grey Eagle area is all that we'd need, however they have plans for many things along the SWCRR when that is completed.

In turn we provide steady, regular usage, possibly even through the winter as Ice-Dice is seemingly dead as well.  Other user groups can book the lot for driver/motorcycle training, car shows, etc. 

[Stuart]

I've said it before but I'll say it again - we need to make friends with Tsuu T'ina.  They are open for business, not bound by city bylaws for noise or Nimbys, and have lands right on the ring road.  Maybe even an extension to the Grey Eagle area is all that we'd need, however they have plans for many things along the SWCRR when that is completed.

In turn we provide steady, regular usage, possibly even through the winter as Ice-Dice is seemingly dead as well.  Other user groups can book the lot for driver/motorcycle training, car shows, etc.

The club did use Grey Eagle in the past, but despite not being bound by bylaws or NIMBY they still stopped renting to us after noise complaints.  I seem to remember it was tire noise related and from someone on the north side of Glenmore Trail.

[John in Calgary]

I know this is probably a long shot (at least judging by the ones I can think of) - how about any local ski hill parking lots, not sure I can think of any that are paved or not in a provincial/federal park, but maybe it will trigger an idea for someone else?

John

[FrozenMarzBar3]

I know this is probably a long shot (at least judging by the ones I can think of) - how about any local ski hill parking lots, not sure I can think of any that are paved or not in a provincial/federal park, but maybe it will trigger an idea for someone else?

John

I was gonna suggest that... Sunshine Village's parking lot is very open, and I believe most of it is paved... The only time I see the lot of under snow though.

My only concern is people use the resort for hiking in the summer, but I am not sure how much of the parking lot is used during that time

[John in Calgary]

I know this is probably a long shot (at least judging by the ones I can think of) - how about any local ski hill parking lots, not sure I can think of any that are paved or not in a provincial/federal park, but maybe it will trigger an idea for someone else?

John

As an aside, I hear these make great summer rallycross locations.

[Pat S]

What would be a good estimate for minimum lot size?

I'm pretty sure it's too small, and a long shot but if you look at satellite view of Spruce Meadows on google maps it looks like they've been hosting something auto related in lot 7 or 8.

[nnywg]

What would be a good estimate for minimum lot size?

I'm pretty sure it's too small, and a long shot but if you look at satellite view of Spruce Meadows on google maps it looks like they've been hosting something auto related in lot 7 or 8.

Actually both those lots are quite large - bigger than Red Deer for sure.  Good find.

[PedalFaster]

What would be a good estimate for minimum lot size?

200 m x 100 m is a rough minimum for rectangular sites, while 500 m x 20 m is a rough minimum for runways. For reference, YYC measures approximately 290 m x 135 m, Westerner is a triangle roughly 220 m long and 110 m wide at its widest point (39 m at its narrowest), and Fort Macleod’s main runway measures 600 m x 22 m to the taxiway.

Edit: Westerner being 39 m wide at its narrowest point doesn't sound right. Let me double-check that.

Edit 2: I thought 39 m sounded too wide, but Westerner's probably actually around 40 m, as verified both by Google Maps' distance measuring tool, and by counting parking stalls.

[Cagare]

The warehouses north of Calgary are actually quite interesting locations as they are not open on Sundays and some have very large lots, but may have transport trucks in them from time to time. Best one I found was the Sobey's distribution center, link to the google map:

https://goo.gl/maps/sEuF859bPkw

Lot measures about 380m x 200m. The only trouble is that it is a large corporate entity and may not have much interest in renting out that lot, plus the agreement even if they considered would probably be terrible.

[PedalFaster]

Yeah, the problem is that people don't generally build big parking lots for fun. If you have a big parking lot sitting empty all the time, you wasted money by building more capacity than you needed. There are a lot of beautiful candidate lots out there (check out this one!) that will unfortunately likely always be too full to be good candidates for us.

To that end -- are you sure that distribution centers don't run on Sundays? Someone else suggested CN's (or maybe CP's -- I forget) rail yard, but I know from personal experience that they run 24/7/365. If in doubt, we could always stake out promising lots on Sundays to confirm.

If we want to pursue a lot owned by a large corporate entity, the best way to do so would be through an inside connection. Nothing about renting a lot to us will appeal to a large corporation -- the amount of money that we'd be able to pay is a rounding error to a large company, and they will be worried about liability. We want someone sympathetic on the inside to plead our case. Where I used to live, in Seattle, we got to run on the huge parking lots of Boeing's assembly facilities for several years because enough Boeing employees autocrossed to form their own club and nag Boeing's facility managers. (Unfortunately, we eventually lost access to Boeing's sites because their factories started working on Sundays as well.)

[Cagare]

You are likely correct that they operate on a Sunday’s at the distribution Centre. It was always going to be a long shot, just haven’t seen such a wide open lot like that around.

I would never entertain trying to rent a lot from CP at all. Again, would have to be a sympathetic plight to rent from anyone because the $$ is not worth the headache.

Bang on that no one builds a big parking lot without using it. Except for defunct businesses, like the horse track we had in Sarnia Ontario. Usually pavement conditions are bad at that point.

What’s the lot like at New Horizons mall? Kidding...

[Pat S]

I would never entertain trying to rent a lot from CP at all....

I think the big lot in that area might belong to Hansen's (car transport company) which would have fluctuating inventory/space requirements. It might be worth looking into.

*edit* the asphalt looks terrible from the satellite view

[PedalFaster]

What’s the lot like at New Horizons mall? Kidding...

You may have been kidding, but I already went there earlier this week just to check. It's way too small, which is too bad, because it was almost completely empty.

[Cagare]

What’s the lot like at New Horizons mall? Kidding...

You may have been kidding, but I already went there earlier this week just to check. It's way too small, which is too bad, because it was almost completely empty.

That’s what I figured. Most modern commercial lot design has too many obstructions for traffic control purposes.

Also, most storage style lots for transport companies has terrible asphalt quality and is more than likely gravel if an old site, not a lot of new ones being developed because of City of Calgary requirements.