Carroll County Independent
Oct 4, 2007

CMI shocked by decision

TAMWORTH — Club Motorsports President Jim Hoensheid released a statement Monday saying Club Motorsports was dismayed by the planning board's decision. He argued there was no good basis for denying the company a special use permit, since the effects on wetlands have been cut by 90 percent (from 6,818 square feet to only 674 square feet) from the company's previous application, filed in December 2006.

In the press release, he stated, "At the Sept. 26 Planning Board hearing on the CMI application, after almost two hours of public comment, the Planning Board closed the public hearing and then voted on the application without any deliberation. As a result, we have no idea why we were not approved and unfortunately will have to expend considerable more money and resources to simply vindicate our right to gain access to our property."

The new permit application requested road improvements to reach the proposed site of five commercial buildings. The planned purpose of the buildings was not explained.

"Club Motorsports is shocked by the Planning Board's denial of our Special Use Permit application under the Tamworth Wetland Ordinance (TWO) for two access ways on our combined 251-acre property. Our application requested improving and widening two existing logging roads that currently cut through wetland areas. The access ways will service five proposed commercial buildings," Hoenscheid wrote, then listed reasons why he believes the Planning Board Should have approved the application.

He said, "The amount of wetland impact is minuscule. The impacts requested are only 674 square feet. The size of the wetland areas adjacent to the logging roads are almost seven acres. This means we requested approval to impact approximately two-tenths of one percent of the wetland area adjacent to access ways. The average amount of wetland impact for a driveway in Tamworth is over 2,000 square feet."

He noted that other projects in Tamworth that have had greater impacts on wetlands have been approved by the planning board. Specifically, he noted: Bryant Mill Road approved for 12,000 square feet of wetland impact; Remick Farm, approved for 6,592 square feet of wetland impact; and Larry Davis approved for 1,700 square feet of wetland impact.

The release goes on to say the application meets or exceeds the recommendation of the Tamworth Conservation Commission, including being limited to 1,112 square feet of impact. The release states, "CMI went above and beyond the recommendation of the TCC and reduced the impacts by another 438 square feet or nearly 40 percent."

The release further states the company's position that, "Tamworth does not have a general zoning ordinance. The town does not have authority to conduct a site plan review or to require an alteration of terrain permit. The Tamworth Wetland Ordinance is limited in jurisdiction to wetlands and waterbodies. The TWO does not extend to any dry or upland areas. If a landowner does not impact a wetland or waterbody, the town has no jurisdiction over the landowner.