Height Limit

[themanoftheland8]

I am doing a report on Six Flags Great America and I was wondering if there is a height limit on the rides. Is there? And if there is, what is it? Sorry if there is already a topic about this

[SFGAmfan]

The height limit is the height of the Sky Trek Tower which is 310 feet I believe.

[CoasterDude12-2]

Almost. The height limit is 310 feet. But Gurnee needs to approve anything over 145 feet.

[DejaVu The Ride]

Gurnee needs to approve anything over the height of 125 feet, not 145 feet. So yeah, no Strata coasters for us.

[Danhockey04]

Maximum Height: 330ft, top of Sky Trek. Gurnee will NOT allow them to build above this height.

To build anything taller than 125ft, they must get permission from Gurnee.

That is the answer to your question, Sky Trek Tower is 330 feet tall, and GAm cannot build over it.

[Chitown]

True, that is what is on the books but rules can be changed.

Gurnee pretty much has not denied any request by SFGAm so if they really pushed for a ride that is taller than STT, they quite possibly could get it.

[FParker185]

99% sure the 360 foot height limit is imposed by the FAA for some local airport (Waukegan Airport I believe), and Gurnee would not be able to approve anything taller than 360 without federal approval(or airport runway modifications)

[Chitown]

Waukegan airport is a good 10 miles away from the park so I don't think that is a factor. On top of that, they are a regional airport so any small planes taking off going west could easily divert once they take off.

Now if SFGAm was in the same position as say a park like SFKK, I could see that being a prob.

[thecoasterguy]

When Great America built Sky Trek Tower, part of the stipulation of making it so high was that no ride would ever be built taller than it. That made sense 30 years ago when any other ride that was 300+ feet tall seemed insane. In fact, coasters over 100 feet tall weren't very common at all.

Now that the thrill park environment has changed, I think that Great America could present an argument to the city that they wanted to build a taller ride and have it heard. It faces the bigger hurdle of making it past the surrounding village, which would almost definitely try to sue, but it would be possible.

That having been said, I can't imagine that Great America wants to build a ride that tall in the near future. The park is doing pretty well and has enough other things to worry about then building a 300 foot tall giga-coaster.

[Jamesb58]

Thecoasterguy is right. If Great America wanted to build a Kingda Ka
style coaster, or a Millenium Force style, they could present a case
to the City and see if they would raise the height limit.

The only problem is the public that live near Six Flags. I have done
some history and the public has been very vocal about Six Flags, and
it's not positive. It's pretty negative. The public would probably
complain about the noise that a 300+ Foot coaster would have.

Come on, they even complained about Shockwaves noise. Not the
mechanic noise, it was the screams and laughter of people is what they
complained about.

The biggest hurdle that Six Flags would have to jump, is the people who
live in Gurnee. They even complained when Giant Drop was proposed.
It was the rides shadow that was complained about that time. Who knows
what Gurnee People would complain about if Six Flags said that they
were going to build a 460 Foot Coaster.

[GamRCFreak]

310, 330, 360 - I guess that STT is growing!

Like Chitown stated before, Gurnee hasn't actually denied SFInc.'s proprosals to build rides. No matter what they build there are going to be people to complain about it. But in the end it is up to the town counsel, not a popular vote.

[Sireze]

I am doing a report on Six Flags Great America and I was wondering if there is a height limit on the rides. Is there? And if there is, what is it? Sorry if there is already a topic about this

Do You mean To get on the ride or the height of the rides?

[Geno21K]

I don't think we'll see it any time soon, but if Kingda Ka goes over well I woulnd't be surprised if SFGA was the next park to get a rocket. That is, if Magic Mountain doesn't get one first.

Think about it, Great Adventure on the East coast, Magic Mountain on the West. SFGA, as SF's best park in the midwest, would be the logical choice for such a marquee attraction. It's proximity to Cedar Point only furthers that idea. Putting a major attraction like that in close distance to CP might draw more people from the midwest our way instead of theirs.

Of course, the liklihood of such a project will depend on how well Kingda Ka works out. If it falters the way that Dragster did during the early going, that may plots the whole thing. Also, like others have mentioned, SFGA would have a battle on its hands to get approval for a ride of that magnitude.

I'm just writing this to dispel some of the earlier posts that claim that SFGA would never get a ride like that. It can and very well might happen sometime in the near future. We'll all just have to wait and see.

[Danhockey04]

Also, about the airport thing, I thought SFGAm is a no-fly zone, so it wouldnt be affected by the airport, I think. About STT growing, lol, it has always been 330 feet tall, just check the sign by the ride before you go on, it clearly states that it is 330 feet tall. Also, SFGAm probably could get a coaster over 330 feet because Gurnee wants the tourists, and the taller coasters seem to attract more tourist. The more publicity the park gets, the more people will come, and Gurnee, in my opinion, would allow SFGAm to do that if more people come in return. The only thing that may stop SFGAm from that is the people living around the park, they complain about everything. It's true though, they hate the noise, that is why we only have 3 CADs, otherwise there would be more of them.

[sixflagsguy5]

Like several of you have said, Gurnee has not rejected a ride proposal so maybe they would change it if SFGAM decided to build a 500 foot ride. I think that they will eventually, but I personally think that a 200 foot launched ride like Storm Runner would be a better ride to build. So with the whole STT being the tallest they can build, if STT was built at 450 ft would they have that the limit? Basically I am asking if they had the rule up originally, or did they put it in after STT was built?

[twixmix0303]

I'm not really sure, but I do know that PGA's Sky Trek Tower is shorter than ours, even though the parks are supposed to be identical. My guess is that the height limits (at least for PGA, so I would assume it would be the same for SFGAm) were already in place for both parks.

[Danhockey04]

AT PGA, STT is only 200ft because they are not allowed to build anything over 200 feet because the Santa Clara Intl Airport is right there. They cant build anything onver 200 feet since it is too close to the airport.