House bill would thwart racetrack plan

CONCORD (AP) — A state representative has filed a bill that would repeal a new law that removed a hurdle for a mountainside motorsports park in Tamworth.

The law, which took effect May 4, exempts the proposed Club Motor Sports track from the town’s racetrack ordinance. Critics say the developers sped the law through the Legislature and stripped local control from the town.

The law “defines private driving instruction and exhibition facilities and exempts such facilities from local regulation of motor vehicle racetracks.”

Harry Merrow of Ossipee filed his plan this week to repeal the law.

“I’ve said all along I’m not against a racetrack; I’m against the town losing local control,” Merrow said.

There are 22 towns in New Hampshire that, like Tamworth, do not have zoning ordinances.

“If you put this type of track in any town, that town would not be able to pass ordinances of any kind,” Merrow said.

Club Motorsports, the company developing the park, supported the law because it contended the racetrack ordinance was designed to deal with racetracks that attract big crowds. The club says there will be no crowds on its course.

“We’re not a racetrack; we’re a motorsports country club,” said Scott Tranchemontagne, spokesman for Club Motorsports. He said the company supported the state law to clarify state oversight of racetracks, including the club’s proposed three-mile course at the base of Mount Whittier.

Tranchemontagne said “the racetrack ordinance was passed back in the ’60s, 40 years ago almost, to deal with big-spectacle racetracks,” and Club Motorsports had questioned from the beginning whether the Tamworth track fell under state law. Developers also argue that the racetrack ordinance was too harsh in that it went beyond appropriate regulation of track operations and interfered with the building stage.

Tranchemontagne said Tamworth, without its own zoning ordinance, used state law to adopt a racetrack ordinance. But Tamworth’s racetrack ordinance inappropriately became a zoning ordinance, he said.