I never really want to campaign for any coaster to be removed because every coaster is loved by someone..... but that particular Vortex is...... probably not going to be missed by any when it's time does come.
News California's Great America Is Closing
- Thread starter warfelg
- Start date
It would be awesome for Carowinds’ entire middle island to be done over. A B&M flyer in place of Nighthawk (which would never happen) and an Intamin pre-fab (which also would never happen) or modern GCI woodie in place of Vortex would be so dope.
I'd love to see the GCI or even a Gravity Group but I personally prefer the Flying Dutchmen over the B&M flyers (not withstanding the pretzel loop) -- That being said, I know the day is coming at some point, sadly. I'd honestly rather see one of the new Vekoma flyers like F.L.Y. show up tho.
Carowinds does need some serious help though..... they have a lot of coasters but not many that people really want to ride that much.
Bringing @b.mac 's comment over here as it seems more fitting:
I'm not sure what Santa Clara can do other than just throw up zoning roadblocks at every turn. They don't really have grounds to jump in and terminate a deal. Additionally, I've heard rumor of this, a big part of the reason the park was going through the slow death was Santa Clara themselves restricting some advancement (like height restrictions and infrastructure improvements). In fact it's not all that uncommon that this kinda (IMO) crap happens where a locality makes it impossible to improve something then complain and refuse to rezone when the owner sells (quite valuable) land.
I'm not sure what Santa Clara can do other than just throw up zoning roadblocks at every turn. They don't really have grounds to jump in and terminate a deal. Additionally, I've heard rumor of this, a big part of the reason the park was going through the slow death was Santa Clara themselves restricting some advancement (like height restrictions and infrastructure improvements). In fact it's not all that uncommon that this kinda (IMO) crap happens where a locality makes it impossible to improve something then complain and refuse to rezone when the owner sells (quite valuable) land.
It seems like Santa Clara basically has a killswitch here, right? Can't they just simply refuse to rezone the park?
Yes and no. They can refuse to rezone it but that doesn’t mean it has to continue to be an amusement park. Even if the zoning specifically states that’s all it can be.
EDIT::
Let me clarify this before the continuation:
The new owner can massively downsize the amusement park aspect of the land and tie a huge shopping center to it and still call it an amusement park if they want. They can do something like 3 acres of a kid park and shops from there.
Here’s the nasty little trick any land owner can pull:
They can let everything becomes SBNO and not open the park. Let it become a blight on the community. Santa Clara property value is so stupid high that other businesses and HOAs in the area would pressure City Hall to do something about it.
In the end I’m not really sure what grounds Santa Clara is going to have to eventually stop this. They maybe should have done more to help CF want to invest in the property then IMO. Especially in the way (it reads) that the space was sold where it was the land and not the park and rides.
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They made agreements to be more permissible towards height restrictions and such as part of that 20 year lease-development agreement. Cedar Fair instead bought the property outright.
The more I look at this the more I think once Cedar Fair signed that agreement they realized they didn't actually want to keep the park and were looking for a way out.
Coasterguy95
Intimidator 305 enjoyer, I make yt vids, watch em!
mantis is a wayyyyy better theme imo, it seemed way cooler, plus i like the colors more on it. Never rode it but still seems cool
Coasterguy95
Intimidator 305 enjoyer, I make yt vids, watch em!
Or on the plot of the sky coaster, that could work, but the gokart track would work just as good, have nice theming for the area, or the volcano plot, or just retheme the trains and stuff or something. Idk, give them new restraints too, that’d be beautiful
As someone that worked in local governments I can comfortably say that a local government can make a company feel welcome.
Honestly based on the way the mayor Talked about the history of the park it wouldn’t shock me if the city didn’t want CF involved.
I don't follow MLB at all, but do any teams out there need a new stadium? Seems it would be a perfect location, since the parking lots aren't going anywhere.
The Oakland Athletics need a new stadium but territory laws block them from moving there IIRC.
They are trying to move to Vegas. Santa Clara I believe, is technically SF Giants territory.
Correct on the Giants territory. The owner of the Athletics is really cheap and so is Oakland. But I think the owners are against a Vegas move.
It sounds like CGA, right now, is zoned exclusively as an amusement park.
I acknowledge that the new owner could try all sorts of skullduggery in response to the city potentially refusing to rezone the property and there are plenty of situations in which they would probably be able to force the city's hand in the long run. That said, I also imagine that it's an open question whether or not the new owners would actually be willing to fight hard/long enough to force the city's hand or if they'd find it more beneficial to either cut their losses and find a new buyer for the land or continue to lease it to an amusement park operator until political will changes.
I guess my point is that if NorCal thoosies want a shot at saving CGA, one possible route does seem to exist here. If I were on the opposite coast, I'd probably be seriously considering some grassroots, local political organizing. We've seen it work before to save parks.
Oh for sure. Don’t want to make it out like SC has 0 options. This is just the sad reality of city planning, that unless the state or federal governments back you, the developers have more ways to impact growth than the government does.
Bumping this thread to share some photos of the park, taken on a trip back in August that I planned pretty much as soon as the land sale was announced.
