V8s' impact can be managed, says Hamilton

Traffic, noise and other environmental complications - including the removal of 25 trees - are seen as the major impediments to Hamilton hosting the V8 Supercars races.

But an assessment of environmental effects released yesterday says that while the impacts of the event are "more than minor", they are not "significant".

Yesterday Hamilton City Council and Waikato District Council publicly notified a resource consent application to host the Supercars for seven years from 2008.

It is the city's biggest consent application and has cost ratepayers at least $350,000 so far.

The application is required under the Resource Management Act. Submissions from the public need to be filed with council by September 27.

The report says that while some environmental impacts fell outside levels that were normally tolerated (under the district plan), they were "not significant", because of their "temporary and localised nature".

"Many can be reduced or mitigated by appropriate and accepted traffic management techniques," the report says.

In its first year, the event is scheduled to take place in the April school holidays. Modelling showed about 156,000 people would attend as participants or spectators in the first year, although that figure could soar in later years as restrictions on daily audience numbers were lifted.

Daily attendance is capped at 65,000 in the first year, with capacity expected to increase to 80,000 in following years.

The city and regional councils plan to offer free and enhanced bus services for the duration of the event.

Negotiations are under way for temporary train services from Auckland, Tauranga, and Rotorua.

Trains could also be used to "shuttle spectators from park-and-ride facilities in, say, Huntly, Morrinsville or Te Awamutu", the report says.

The District Council will help provide 19,300 car parks on the eastern fringes of Hamilton, at Agresearch's Ruakura fields and Puketaha Rd.

The report says a free shuttle bus would run between the carparks and the Supercar circuit.

Construction of stands and the circuit will begin up to 12 weeks before the event.

The report says a fuel depot holding 20,000 litres of high-octane petrol would be established at Hinemoa Park.

The event is also "inherently noisy", the report says, and this is "an important part of the enjoyment of the event for spectators".

Because the area is industrial, just seven homes are expected to be exposed to noise levels over 85dBA L10 (levels similar to Auckland's Western Springs Stadium on a night of car racing).

Screens would be erected to cut the noise for those people.

Noise from a helicopter hovering over the event would be "minimised" by using a modern aircraft that would fly no lower than 2000 feet.

Only low volumes would be necessary on public address systems, as a wide network of speakers would operate around the circuit, and an FM station would be set up for people to tune in to race developments.

Seventeen trees on public parks and reserves would be removed, including a row of pin oaks next to Waikato Stadium on Mill St.

A further eight trees on the street circuit are also in for the chop.

An economic assessment says in the first year the race would result in $20.3 million in "new money" and $15.2 million more expected in "value-added" or "downstream" effects.

"On the basis over the seven years (2008-2014), the total 'new money' brought in to the economy would be $156 million and this would result in total incremental growth in regional GDP of $116 million," the report says.