COTTAGE GROVE — The city is standing by its order that the Cottage Grove Speedway remain closed until it makes substantial progress on mandated fire safety, environmental, drainage and roadway upgrades.

The speedway had pleaded with the city to let the facility open so it could hold a scheduled race tonight.

But in an Aug. 23 letter, the city said it is denying the speedway’s request and stressed that the city has previously given the speedway many warnings and many months of grace time to comply with the city’s requirements.

The speedway apparently will comply with the shutdown order. The speedway’s website says tonight’s race is canceled and that racetrack owner Bob Farwell “is working with the city to finish the season.”

The raceway also has races scheduled for Sept. 1, 8, 15 and 29. The season ends with the Sept. 29 race.

Speedway attorney Kevin Lafky could not be reached for comment late Friday.

Lafky had argued that the city had failed to give the speedway a sufficient and reasonable deadline to comply with upgrade orders.

But in his Thursday letter to Lafky, Howard Schesser, the city’s community development director, said the city has been stressing to Farwell and his representatives since late 2009 that they must comply with city ordinances, including Ordinance 2928, which the City Council passed specifically to incorporate the speedway into the city limits. The ordinance set a timetable for the speedway to upgrade the facility to city standards for fire safety, access, environmental protection and the like.

Schesser wrote that in a February conference call with speedway representatives, he had stressed that they must move forward on the upgrades, and that in an April 20 letter he had given them until May 14 to comply but that the delay yielded “very little results.”

“Your client was given a reasonable opportunity to comply but chose not to perform,” Schesser wrote.

Schesser said the speedway must stay closed until Farwell submits engineering drawings and permit applications for extending water lines and fire hydrants, plus sewer lines, to the speedway, as well as plans for a new secondary access road for emergency vehicles.

Also, Farwell must submit to the city complete building permit applications for an array of racetrack structures — including the track archway — that were built without permits over the years.

The city adopted Ordinance 2928 in November 2010.

Schesser, in his letter to Lafky, noted that the ordinance requires the speedway to actually build the water lines, hydrants and sewer lines within two years, not just complete engineering plans.

Farwell signed a contract in December 2008 to buy the speedway from previous owner Russell Leach for $1.035 million, according to a memorandum of contract of sale filed with the county. Under the contract, Farwell has until Nov. 30, 2013, to complete all payments to Leach, according to the memorandum.

In December 2011, Leach transferred his interest in the contract, for $1.65 million, to Jerry Schram, whose Endeavor Promotions owns several speedways in the Pacific Northwest. Under that transfer, Leach affirmed that Farwell was current on all his payments on the 2008 contract through Dec. 31, 2011.

A decade ago, when the Cottage Grove track was still in Lane County jurisdiction, some residents began complaining about noise, dust, late-night races and buildings having been constructed without permits.

After critics pushed the county into a crackdown, the city of Cottage Grove sought to defuse the crisis by annexing the property into the city and setting requirements for the owners to bring the property up to urban standards with proper access, fire lanes, fire hydrants, water and sewage lines, runoff control