CHAPPELL HILL - A fight is breaking out 60 miles northwest of Houston, where Gulf Coast flatlands give way to rolling hills, where Porsches and Corvettes may soon roam where once cattle and deer did.

A group of amateur high-performance car enthusiasts is poised to buy about 500 acres just south of this small, historic community, which hugs U.S. 290 in rural Washington County. They want to build a luxury private track of their dreams, where they plan to spend weekends perfecting their skills and educating others about performance driving.

They say they won't have grandstands along the 3.2-mile track featuring 19 turns, and stress that their street-legal rides are nowhere near as loud as stock cars or dragsters.

But the Bluebonnet Racing Circuit, as the track is to be named, faces heated competition.

Local residents fear the whine of the speeding cars will deprive them of the silence and natural beauty that have long shaped this region. And they are trying to rally public opinion as well as going to court to stop the project.

Charles Von Schmidt, a Houston developer who is coordinating the project, said he originally had expected bulldozers would be pushing dirt by now. But a lawsuit filed in late January slowed matters.

"We are not huge. We do not have fans. A lot of people think we are trying to bring NASCAR to Chappell Hill, Texas," Von Schmidt said. "If that were the case, I'd be the first to be against it."

Von Schmidt and his group, Club Track Holdings, are set to spend $17 million on everything from buying the land to building the track and accompanying buildings and garages.

But they are being faced down by a "No Race Track" campaign. Its billboards denouncing the track rise alongside the highway, and yard signs are perched along barbed-wire fences ringing the property. Their ranks recently packed a town meeting on the race track, and they continue to pull aside government officials every chance they get to make sure their concerns are understood.

County can't rule it out

County Judge John Brieden said he's heard plenty from people about the track, and that those opposed to it are the loudest.

"I can't go to the restaurant, I can't go to the grocery store, without folks coming up and wanting to talk about it," he said. "It has gotten to be a big, big thing."

Among the challenges, he said, is that Chappell Hill is unincorporated - so there are no local ordinances - and commissioners don't have the authority to simply rule whether a track should be allowed here.

"As a result, there are a lot of people who are upset with elected officials," he said. "It puts us in a very difficult position."

He declined to say whether he was personally for or against the track, which would be built on land owned by a family trust derived from the now-deceased LeRoy Melcher, who was head of the U Totem convenience store chain. The landowners could not be reached for comment.

Emotions around here are so charged that locals say they could be compared to the failed 2008 effort to incorporate Chappell Hill, which is mostly known for such annual events as the Bluebonnet Festival, the Scarecrow Festival and Chappell Hill Sausage.

Freedom cuts both ways

The traditional Texas spirit of leaving people alone to do what they want on their land has both drawn people here and left them few options for putting the brakes on the track project.

The community is neat and quiet and has a feel of stepping back in the past. It was founded in 1847 and its heyday was before the Civil War. It later lost about half its citizenry to yellow fever, and that, combined with the falling off of cotton, led to a population plunge from which it never recovered. In recent years, however, it has seen a surge in newcomers and a climb in land prices.

Residents note there is no mayor, nor rules for such things as dogs on leashes, burning leaves or parking cars. The Chappell Hill Bank even has a sign letting customers know it supports them carrying lawful concealed weapons.

A partial impetus behind the building the track is the June closure of College Station's Texas World Speedway, which was built in 1968. It was once an elite professional track, where Mario Andretti drove a record 214 mph in 1973 while qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. But since then it has been transformed from the original 2-mile loop into a facility similar to what the Bluebonnet would be.

It has numerous turns, a performance driving school and, like the proposed Bluebonnet track, has a central location for drawing drivers from Houston, Austin, Dallas and elsewhere.

The lawsuit contends such roadways are "excessively loud" and maintain "violent volumes for hours on end."

It also claims the track would diminish property value, generate noise pollution and change the area's character.

Among the plaintiffs are Houston lawyer Charles Fridge and his family, who own 650 acres and reside on land adjacent to the proposed track, and Helen Philips, a veterinarian who planned on building her dream home on a 40-acre plot also beside property eyed for the race track.

"I can walk out of my house, and I will not only be able to hear the race track, but feel the race track and see the race track," Philips said. "My fence line is literally their fence line."

"I didn't move to Chappell Hill to build a home to have a race track next door," she said.

But she stressed that the fight is not just about a few homes, but the future of an entire community.

Developer's assurances

Von Schmidt said the concern and outrage are unwarranted.

The track is to be built well inside the boundaries of the property, he said, and will feature "attractive" walls and berms to reduce sound that won't go past legal levels. He said the track will be used on the weekends during daylight hours.

Amateur drivers start with classroom instruction, and over the following months and years, drive with the help of instructors - who often ride along in the cars - to improve their skills.

Many of the owners use the same cars to commute to work, he said, noting that some literally pull the baby seat out before taking to the track.

He also said that they will be checked for loudness, and noted that some of the fastest cars on the track are so quiet they can hardly be heard. Cars that are too loud or have no mufflers will be turned away, he said.

Von Schmidt said drivers and their families would pump $9 million a year into the local economy, but the Chappell Hill Chamber of Commerce declined to comment.

Another official, who asked to not be named, said the track is as controversial as things get here.

"You sure know how to jump in the middle of a fight," the official, when asked for an opinion on the track. "Don't get me hung up by my toenails."

Drivers eager to go

Herberto Ferrer, an amateur driver from Houston, said he and others hope issues can be resolved.

"Me and many others were pretty disheartened to hear the track at College Station was going away," said Ferrer, who is in cyber security. He recalled how he got his first taste of performance driving at the College Station track back in 2011 and how it quickly became a major passion in his life, and a pursuit he now shares with family. Drivers and their families sometimes have cookouts as they wait their turns, he said.

"I understand as a home­owner that people who live in the surrounding area have concerns," said Ferrer. "Knowing Charles (Von Schmidt) and the rest of the people involved, I know they will want to be accommodating to make sure they are good neighbors," he said.

Fridge, the lawyer who is suing over the track, said he doesn't see any way the countryside and the raceway can coexist.

He recalled crouching with his three young sons recently in a duck blind, beside a pond near where the track is planned, and watched the fowl.

"I grew up in the city and I'm raising my boys to grow up in the country," he said. "It is a unique piece of land that my wife and I spent over 15 years saving for, and trying to find our corner of paradise."