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Wildfire's Status- Set to Open!

Ian said:
^ By the looks of it, Mean Streak will be unrecognisable after its conversion, therefore the ride, as we knew it, won't be reopening. Besides, it's not going to open in the 2017 season, anyway!
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You see I don't keep up with CP like I do with KI and ATR. So how was I supposed to know? :emoji_smile:
 
TLARides said:
That doesn't make sense. It's just being converted.
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It very much made sense. Mean Streak is not reopening as 'Mean Streak', it will without doubt be rebranded with the new experience that it's going to offer. It's much more than just a conversion when the track length, height and profile is being completely redeveloped. It's only projected to open for the 2018 season :)
 
Lofty said:
It very much made sense. Mean Streak is not reopening as 'Mean Streak', it will without doubt be rebranded with the new experience that it's going to offer. It's much more than just a conversion when the track length, height and profile is being completely redeveloped. It's only projected to open for the 2018 season :)
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I thought they were just redoing the ride. I never knew that they were going to erase it from the property completely. Thank you for letting me know.
 
Glad to hear they have a stay in place for one more year of operation - hopefully the building permit will ultimately be granted. At least here in the US, it would be very difficult bureaucratically and politically to force the removal of a structure after its building due to permits missed by the government. Of course, Sweden are a bunch of socialists, and don't put America first. :p

TLARides said:
I thought they were just redoing the ride. I never knew that they were going to erase it from the property completely. Thank you for letting me know.
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In essence yes to both scenarios - the structure will remain and be used, however the layout will extensively be different.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154130213188639

Think the transformation of Twisted Twins to Storm Chaser - the structure was used for Storm Chaser, however the layout was (obviously) different.
twisted-twins.jpg

 
FYI, this is unlikely to open in 2017 but it will not be closed forever.
 
Actual source, the guy who imagineered and helped design it! It is unlikely it will open this year due to the lengthy appeal process. There is a slim chance but it is unlikely.
 
Well, that's me changing up plans for my Sweden trip this year~
At least it's not getting removed or anything, so there's that.
 
Someone posted this on Reddit: http://www.corren.se/nyheter/norrkoping/har-ar-turerna-kring-wildfire-om4559142.aspx

[Very] rough translations:
WILDFIRE NEED NOT TO BE SCRATCHED January 24, 2017: Construction and Environmental Protection Committee in Linköping decide to funicular does not need to be demolished, although it is formally a black building because the building permit is not valid anymore.

CITIZENS GET CHANCE TO ENJOY February 2017: The municipality has put in a carbon and had proposed a detailed plan, which is based on referral to, citizens must have their say.

KOLMÅRDEN GET YES - BUT STILL DOUBT 23 March 2017: Municipality of Norrköping say yes, Wildfire can run when Kolmarden opens for the season in April. But the park's acting CEO Christer Fogelmarck hesitate. Park management "have to look through this," says Fogelmarck. According to him, the park has "always received mixed messages from different parties."
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Whoa, that's very rough translations indeed. Mind if I do?

WILDFIRE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE DEMOLISHED
January 24, 2017. The Building and Environmental Protection Committee in Linköping decide that the roller coaster does not need to be demolished, despite it technically being an illegal structure since its building permit is not valid any more.

CITIZENS GET AN OPPORTUNITY TO VOICE THEIR CONCERNS
February 2017. The municipality has "risen from their chairs" (Pokey's note: There seems to be a Swedish idiom here, "added some coal" - probably a railroad reference - and I can't find any better English replacement than this) and presented a proposal for a detail plan, which is put on a public hearing so that citizens can have their say.

KOLMÅRDEN GETS APPROVAL, BUT STILL HESITATING
March 23, 2017. The municipality of Norrköping approves, Wildfire is allowed to run when Kolmården opens for the season in April.
But the park's acting CEO, Christer Fogelmarck, is in doubt.
The park management "has to look through this", Fogelmarck says.
According to him, the park has "continuously received differing messages from different parties".
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By the way, looking through the article, it seems like the municipality wasn't being a killjoy for no reason. They didn't pull the rug underneath Kolmården. When Wildfire was first presented, the municipality's environmental committee pointed out that the detail plan for the area said nothing about being allowed to build large coasters. A complete environmental assessment/survey would have to be undertaken and then a special permit given, according to established procedures. The park complained about this, and won through. The need for a survey/special permit was put aside.

However, it seems like certain parties complained about the overrule. They argued that it wasn't fair to set aside official procedure, and that a permit really should be required before such a massive and noisy structure could be built. The coaster's (substantial, I might add) impact on the traffic to and from the park was not even considered when the need for a permission was appealed. So the environmental court had a second look at the process, and decided that indeed, Kolmården really should have had their permits in order. This project went outside the scope of the area plan. One couldn't just brush aside the procedures like that. Wildfire was a permit-requiring structure, and no permit was in place.

Then again, Kolmården did follow the procedure it was given, everything they did was legal according to what they were told, and the project is way larger and more far-reaching than some illegally erected garage or company parking lot (which the law usually applies to). So the current ruling is that a fait accompli should be accepted, and Wildfire may operate.
 
Thanks @Pokemaniac, I was hoping you'd pop up here. ;)

Sounds like a very logical series of events, and unfortunately just "one of those things". Thankfully, it sounds like things are being worked on in the background to keep this great coaster operating.
 
Unfortunate the local municipality then didn't stick to their guns and require all permits and studies at the onset - would have avoided this entire fiasco.

Kolmarden going outside of their project scope does expose them to legal liability; but the buck does stop with local authority. Their lack of planning and leniency (while in good faith) has come back to bite.
 
Not sure what the current status of all this is, but I found a recent article that (somewhat translated by Google) seems to say that the local planning board approved something last week (23rdMay) that allows the local council to make some decision on 19th June.
Anyway ; http://www.nt.se/nyheter/norrkoping/detaljplan-for-wildfire-godkandes-om4667513.aspx

and ; https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/ost/detaljplanen-ar-klar-for-wildfire
approved zoning
Today, during a meeting took Town Planning Board in Norrköping decision to approve the established plan. And now it is finally adopted by the City Council.
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Basically, yes. They're working on an Environmental Consequences Assessment, according to the first article. Just describing the impact of the coaster on the wildlife and such, doesn't seem like anything but a formality.

The second article from SVT says that the new detailed area plan (which includes the coaster) is expected to be approved at some point in June.

It's a little too late in the evening for me to do a coherent translation right now, but I can have a more thorough look at it tomorrow.
 
All right, time to try for some translation. As per convention, things in square brackets is implicit words, idioms, the like:

http://www.nt.se/nyheter/norrkoping/detaljplan-for-wildfire-godkandes-om4667513.aspx
NT.se said:
Detail plan for Wildfire is approved
Norrköping: On Tuesday, the city planning board approved the detail plan for the roller coaster Wildfire at Kolmårdens Djurpark

The work with developing a detail plan has been going on since the message from the Nature and Environmental Court [was received] in October 2016.

- We have made the suggested detail plan according to the preconditions that exist. The EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) will be completed during the work process, and now we're only waiting for the final report, says planning engineer Anita Johansson of the city planning office to NT ahead of the meeting of the city planning board.

And during Tuesday's gathering, the decision was made to approve the presented detail plan, SVT East reports.

On June 19, the municipal council of Norrköping will make its decision.
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SVT.se said:
Wildfire may soon get the green light
In October 2016, the message arrived from the Nature and Environmental Court [saying] that a detail plan was required for the roller coaster Wildfire. Since then, Wildfire has been closed. But after a detail plan now is being put forward, today it was approved by the city planning board in Norrköping.

Wildfire initially got a construction approval from Norrköping municipality, but it was appealed and the decision was overruled by the Nature and Environmental Court last year.

The court ruled that a detail plan was required for such a large construction as the roller coaster. That meant that the construction approval that Norrköping municipality issued at the beginning of the process was no longer valid.

Has been out for public hearing
After the decision by the court, Wildfire has been standing still at Kolmården, and Norrköping municipality started work producing a detail plan for the area. During the planning process, nature and noise issues have been addressed, among other things.

Between February 17 and March 17 the detail plan has been out for public hearing, and those interested have been able to leave their viewpoints regarding the detail plan.

Approved detailed plan
During a gathering today, the city planning board in Norrköping decided to approve the presented detail plan. And now it will finally [as a final step of the process] be addressed by the muicipal council.

The preliminary schedule suggests that it may happen at some point in June.

After that, all that remains to be seen is when Kolmården will start the roller coaster again.
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So yeah, one final step remains, and that's Norrköpings municipal council. All the other paperwork seems to be filed.
 
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