'We're not leaving': How one of Sydney's most popular go-karting tracks overturned a council plan to become a carpark
A popular go-karting track in the city's Entertainment Quarter has toppled a council push to wipe it out for a car park.
In a desperate attempt to save the attraction, Hyper Karting managing director Andrew Richardson turned to social media to get the word out, urging people to let the City of Sydney know they were not on board with the decision.
"Whose better to say what's right for the community than the community themselves?" he told nine.com.au.
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More than 150 jobs have been saved thanks to the outcome. Supplied
Richardson said that the City of Sydney was "absolutely overwhelmed" by the number of submissions they received and announced on social media that "we're not leaving" as the call was overturned.
"It took them three weeks to get through the submissions, and everything else got massively delayed," he said.
Reverting the track to a car park would have created an additional 296 parking spots, coming at the expense of the attraction, axing more than 150 jobs in the process.
Hyper Karting argued that at its current size, the carpark had only reached maximum capacity a few times, even on the busiest of occasions, including sell-out concerts and sporting events happening at the same time.
When the Sydney Swans played their home opener at the SCG, Hyper Karting claimed that despite being one of the city's largest sporting events of the year, there was no shortage of parking.
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The track attracts more than 500,000 people every year. Supplied
Hyper Karting Moore Park. Wolter Peeters
"There were 68 unused car spaces at the EQ (I counted them). If Hyper Karting hadn't occupied level 5, there would have instead been 364 spare spaces," Hyper Karting wrote in a statement.
They also noted that a car park adding 1350 spaces is being built at Allianz Stadium and is set to be completed by early next year.
In what Richardson described as a "David and Goliath situation", more than 4000 submissions were sent to the council, toppling the previous record of 800, held by the opposition to a McDonald's being built in Newtown last year.
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Hyper Karting Managing Director Andrew Richardson. Wolter Peeters
Politicians Clover Moore, Alex Greenwich, Allegra Spender and Business Sydney Executive Director Paul Nicolaou voiced their support for the popular track.
Richardson said that his original application was refused by council town planners, who he believed did not know much about the track, which attracts more than 500,000 customers every year.
"The initial review didn't involve a formal site visit, and it seemed to us that there was a lack of understanding of the scale of our operation," he told nine.com.au.
"They didn't even understand what the precinct was."
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