Sandwich selectmen discuss easement

10-7-04

Sandwich selectmen discuss easement

By LORI LENART
Staff Writer

SANDWICH — Sandwich residents heard at the Monday, Sept. 27 selectmen’s meeting that the town has not accepted an easement on the 107-acre plot on Route 25 from Club Motorsports, Inc. About 30 residents attended the meeting.

As part of the wetland mitigation process, Club Motorsports Inc., a developer interested in creating a european-style raceway on the side of Mount Whittier in Tamworth, must protect wetlands on or near their proposed development site. Establishment of a mitigation site is one of the 32 conditions on the N.H. Department of Environmental Services wetlands permit that was recently granted to Club Motorsports.

The Sandwich parcel has been referred to by Club Motorsports as a potential mitigation site. Although not in Tamworth, it is within the Bearcamp River watershed.

Selectmen said they were confused by the reference to the Sandwich site as a potential mitigation site since they had turned down the proposed easement in July, based on the recommendation of the Sandwich Conservation Commission.

During the Sept. 30 meeting, attendants heard that the conservation commission would not accept the easement because they felt it was too general. Also, conditions of the easement would allow building on upland tracts of the property, Benton said during a separate interview.

After reviewing the easement, members of the conservation commission decided they would only consider free ownership of the land, which would give them complete authority over the easement.

Having heard the recommendations from the conservation commission, the selectmen sent a letter to the ESS Group, the engineering firm developing the racetrack, on July 19. Benton said the selectmen still have not heard back from Club Motorsports.

“We were surprised to hear that it was one of the conditions of the permit (that was granted by DES),” Benton said, given that they hadn’t heard back from Club Motorsports about their easement offer.

“[Residents] still have reservations about the town participating in something that looks like they’re in favor of something when they’re not,” Benton said referring to the acceptance of an easement that would move Club Motorsports’s project forward.

Rick Van de Poll, a wetland scientist and member of the Sandwich Conservation Commission, said at previous selectmen's meetings that he did not believe the 107-acre parcel actually met guidelines laid out for a compensatory mitigation site.

Mainly, he said, the plot was 65 percent wetland. The guidelines require the area to have less than 50 percent wetland content. Although the plot does have more than the required 7.3 acres of wetland upland buffer, it does not contain the same kind of wetland as the one on Club Motorsports’s land. "You are not going to get aquifer recharge/discharge from a beaver pond" like the wetlands associated with streambeds, Van de Poll said.

George “Chip” Kimball, chairman of the Sandwich Conservation Commission, said that DES had accepted the parcel as a “potential” mitigation property only. The commission or the selectmen have not received an easement proposal for consideration yet, said Kimball. He added that the last he heard was that Club Motorsports was trying to work an easement out with Tamworth.

John Mersfelder, chairman of the Tamworth Conservation Commission agreed, saying that the commission has a few plots in mind and are actively working with Club Motorsports to find a suitable property.

Club Motorsports does have another option. Easements are agreements or contracts, which can be agreed upon with any agency. At the Sept. 30 selectmen’s meeting, members of the Sandwich Conservation Commission said they were concerned that if they did not intervene and insist on free ownership of the land, then another government agency such as the NH Fish and Game or DRED could hold the easement instead.

Initially, when asked to comment, Scott Tranchemontagne, representing Club Motorsports, said that they were just waiting to close on the Sandwich parcel, at which point, they would agree to easement conditions. Club Motorsports had sent a response back to the town of Sandwich indicating they were open to the terms as specified in Sandwich's last letter, he said.

He added that the Department of Environmental Services had spoken with Sandwich before issuing the permit and seemed satisfied that Club Motorsports was working proactively with the town.

When told of Benton's statements, Tranchemontagne spoke with representatives from ESS, who said they have been in communication with the conservation commission by email. They asked to have two different parties involved, one who held the deed and one who held the easement, which was agreeable to the ESS Group, he said. Tranchemontagne added that Club Motorsports was also actively working with Tamworth to find a suitable plot in Tamworth.

Benton said that he has not heard that Club Motorsports has offered an easement to anyone else yet. He added that the selectmen would let the public know as soon as something came to them to review.