PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP, MICH.—It’s a sure bet that plenty of people don’t want horseracing and parimutuel wagering to arrive in the Detroit area bedroom town of Plymouth Township, Michigan. And those people, with issues ranging from gambling, animal care, zoning, traffic, and drinking, are making a lot of noise with petitions, yard signs, posters, and handouts, as well as angry speeches at public meetings. But the township’s leadership is moving ahead with a plan that, at the very least, is a complicated one for Northville Downs, even though its planned move will encompass only a 4.7-mile jaunt from its current location.
Northville Downs, which has been racing at its current location since 1944, is in a predicament to move from their current location, which, by some accounts, might not occur until the end of 2024. The Downs, owned by the Carlo family for 80 years, sold its Northville property five years ago for $4.5 million to a mixed-use development company. Operations Manager Mike Carlo did not return calls by The Epoch Times at publication. The plan is to move the track to a 128-acre vacant brownfield location on the outskirts of Plymouth Township that was once used as a prison farm.
And while Plymouth Township’s planning commission and selectman have given the go-ahead for the move, the Stop-the-Racetrack group has gathered 1,500 petition signatures. Bernhardt and his following have also flooded township meetings since last year with as many as 100 people waiting in line to use their three minutes of public comment time to share their personal disdain for the Downs’s plans.
Plymouth Township Supervisor Kurt Heise says that Bernhardt’s group is using the Northville Downs move as a cover for political motivation. “The core issue is that this [protest] is a precursor to the 2024 elections here. Two years ago, we had a tree ordinance this group got upset over,” he said to The Epoch Times. “My big beef with them and Mr. Bernhardt is that they are collecting petitions, and that’s great, and they have a First Amendment right to do so, but there’s also an expectation that the local government sees these petitions. It appears to me that the signatures are being created for a political database.”
Mr. Bernhardt says Mr. Heise’s assertion that his group is motivated by politics, is wrong. “We’ve told him many times it’s not for political reasons. He signed the petition himself, probably to be aware of what the issues are, and is more than able to access the petition information online.”
Some local business owners are also concerned about what a horse racetrack and parimutuel betting site will mean for the quiet Plymouth Township community. John Cudd, a second-generation owner of Chuck’s Service Center, told The Epoch Times that he doesn’t love a plan that he believes will negatively influence the Township where his family has owned his business for 75 years. “I’m not into horseracing and see it as cruelty to animals and I think gambling is against the human race. You’re going to get more traffic, too and I just don’t see much good coming from it,” he said. When asked if he thinks it will happen despite the organized opposition, he added, “Money usually talks, and we'll see who has the most money and the most patience.”
While those opposed to the project have focused on the potential of increased traffic in the area and that the property is not zoned for gambling operations like the Downs, Mr. Heise says those issues have been discussed over and over in public settings since last year. He also believes that despite the opposition in the township, there’s a market for what the Downs will bring to the area.
“Parimutuel horse betting is heavily regulated by the state and total winnings last year [at the Northville location] were over $40 million. So, there’s clearly people interested in this type of gaming experience,” he said. “There’s no zoning anywhere in Southeast Michigan that provides for a racetrack. Maybe at one point, but we don’t have agricultural land in the township anymore either. We have to treat them like any other applicant with a project that is not zoned for that use. Right now, it’s zoned for light industrial.”
Ironically, the same Plymouth Township planning commission that approved the Northville Downs plan denied Michigan-based Meijer grocery store a special land use request earlier this summer to build not far from where the racetrack is scheduled to be placed. Meijer’s parent company, Redico Holdings, is now suing the township over that decision.
