Tamworth trying to keep proposed race track quiet

Wednesday, February 2, 2005

TAMWORTH, N.H. (AP) — Residents opposed to a planned driving track for sports cars are trying another angle to muffle the noise the track could produce.

About 250 residents have signed a Town Meeting petition for a new noise ordinance aimed at the Club Motorsports Inc. plan to build a three-mile driving track on Mount Whittier.

The company says 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 to be voted on March 9 would limit 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, called the move another in a string of activist swipes at development.

"If they can pass a restrictive sound ordinance on our business, who’s next? Can they restrict sound at the log yard? Can they restrict sound at the crusher?" said spokesman Scott Tranhemontagne.

"The 69 decibel level is ridiculous on its face. They know at 69 decibels we would not be able to operate," he said. "At 69 decibels at our property line, we can’t even mow our lawn," he said.

Focus: Tamworth, a citizen’s group said that "a professional sound study in the summer of 2003 showed that noise from CMI’s proposed facility would impact nearby homes and businesses as well as the K.A. Brett School, St. Andrews in the Valley Episcopal Church, and White Lake State Park.

"Noise pollution, the study pointed out, affects physical and psychological health. The Tamworth School Board has asked the selectmen to consider the education, health and welfare of students in any future noise ordinance decision."

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

"At this point Tamworth has no enforceable control over the operation of the proposed Club Motorsports Inc. development, or over the activities of other groups that might rent the track," Focus spokesman Charles Greenhalgh said.

He said that without the racetrack ordinance, Tamworth has no statutory local control of the track’s operations."

His group is not out to "kill the project," Greenhalgh said. "We think its important for Tamworth to regain the only element of statutory local control available."