A local entrepreneur is seeking to start a go kart racing track on a portion of the Western Financial Place parking lot.
Christian Hirn spoke to city council on Monday, April 8 about leasing one acre of the parking lot over summer to run a new go kart business, Mad Max's Go Karts.
"The parking lot sits empty for most of the summer time. It's already paved. All the infrastructure we would put in place would all be fully portable. We would be willing to lease the property from the City of Cranbrook in order to be able to set this up and see if we could make a go of it," Hirn told council.
Hirn said he has long hoped to start a go kart racing business but doesn't have money available for start-up costs.
"I don't have an outrageous amount of funding to be able to purchase a property and apply for zoning changes to turn that into a recreational zoning," he said.
"My proposal is to see if we may be able to utilize a pre-existing facility within the city limits to test this out and do some market research and studies to see if it would warrant purchasing a property in the future."
Hirn's proposal is to lease about one acre of the Western Financial Place parking lot from May to September. The track and pits would be formed using stacjed tires. A perimeter fence would enclose the facility. Hirn would repaint parking lines at the end of the season.
Council liked the idea but were concerned about noise levels. Hirn offered to provide council with research about noise from go kart tracks.
City council asked Leisure Services to prepare a report on the feasibility of the proposal. Council will consider it again likely at its May 6 meeting.
Hirn said it would only take about two weeks from approval to bring in the infrastructure and karts and prepare to open the business.