Noise levels would be intolerable and intrusive for nearby residents if the Highlands Motorsport Park was allowed to hold a race meeting the same day as the neighbouring speedway, opponents say.
The motorsport park trust has applied to the Central Otago District Council to vary its resource consent conditions so it can stage a two-day racing event at Easter.
Under its current conditions, it is prohibited from holding a race day the same day as the adjoining Central Motor Speedway.
Highlands wants to hold races on the Saturday and Sunday of Easter (April 19-20) and is limited to racing between 8am and 6pm, while the speedway planned to stage races on Good Friday (April 18) and Easter Sunday (April 20), with racing taking place at night on the Sunday.
The speedway committee has approved Highlands' plans.
Next week, the council's hearing panel will consider the application, which attracted 21 submissions.
Ten supported the proposal, 10 opposed it and one was neutral.
The council's planning consultant, David Whitney, has recommended the condition be changed, so racing is allowed on both tracks on the same date at Easter weekend each year, on one day only.
In its application, the park trust said racing at Highlands would be during the day and the speedway racing would start after the Highlands track was closed.
Although that would mean a ''concentration'' of noise over Easter weekend, there were noise level controls in place.
The noise effects of having race events on the same day would be ''less than minor'', the application said.
An assessment by an acoustic engineer, prepared for Highlands, concluded the noise effect would ''not be significant''.
Nine out of 10 submitters who supported the plan said there would be positive effects for the wider community.
Opponents said the noise from racing at Highlands was already intrusive and they were opposed to listening to three consecutive days of racing noise at Easter, including one day in which noise might extend from 8am to 11pm or later.
''That duration of noise would be simply intolerable and significantly affect the enjoyment of our property,'' the A.B. McKay Family Trust said, in its submission.
The family property is across the road from the motorsport park. Jack and Kareen Searle, of Bannockburn, said the noise of racing ''intrudes into houses, even with windows shut''.
Bannockburn residents Anthony and Patricia Streeter also objected and said the noise from the speedway and motorsport racing was ''highly intrusive''.
They said although racing days were limited, practice and time trial days were also noisy and they queried whether noise levels were being monitored.
