Thursday, March 17, 2005

Community approves noise ordinance aimed at proposed race track

TAMWORTH, N.H. (AP) — Residents opposed to a planned driving track for sports cars have approved a measure muffling the noise the three-mile course could produce.

But the track is examining the legality of the 261-142 March 9 Town Meeting vote that approved the ordinance aimed at Club Motorsports Inc. plan to build the driving track on Mount Whittier.

“There’s a question about the validity of the ordinance because it is aimed at no other business but Motorsports,” spokesman Scott Tranchemontaigne said Wednesday. “We are taking a long look at the legal perspective,” he said Wednesday.

Charles Greenhalgh, spokesman for the citizens group Focus:Tamworth, said it is ready to fight.

Communities that regulate businesses “always take the risk that the business will sue to overturn the regulation,” but by enacting rules “to protect their health and safety” the voters “are also demonstrating that they expect their town officials to enforce and defend the regulation,” he said.

The company has said the strict noise limits would prevent it from even mowing the lawn on the property. It says its own sound study showed the driving course would not affect the community of 2,600 people.

The new ordinance limits noise to 69 decibels at all “private driving instruction and exhibition facilities.”

Club Motorsports, which wants to carve a European-style road course and hotel into the north face of the 2,230-foot mountain, has called the move another activist swipe at development.

“The 69 decibel level is ridiculous on its face,” Tranchemontage said earlier. “At 69 decibels at our property line, we can’t even mow our lawn,” he said.

Focus: Tamworth said a sound study in the summer of 2003 showed noise from CMI’s proposed track would affect nearby homes and businesses as well as nearby school, church and state park.

The Army Corps of Engineers has hired an independent expert to look at both sound studies, Tranchemontagne said.