CMI operating plan sets limits on auto noise

September 22, 2005

CMI operating plan sets limits on auto noise

By TERRY LEAVITT

Editor

TAMWORTH — A compromise over sound was the final hurdle Club Motorsports had to overcome before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted the business a permit to build its motorsports country club on the side of Mt. Whittier in Tamworth.

Last week, Club Motorsports announced that it had received the Army Corps permit, and so had now received all the state and federal permits it needs for its facility, which will be known as Valley Motorsports Park.

Construction is not expected to begin right away however, since there is pending litigation with Focus: Tamworth over a town permit, as well as an appeal being considered for one of the state permits. The lawsuit regarding the Tamworth Wetlands Ordinance has a trial date of Dec. 19 in Rockingham Superior Court. The appeal of the state water quality certificate will be heard Nov. 9.

Scott Tranchemontagne, spokesman for Club Motorsports said the federal application includes an operational plan for the facility. The company plans to publish the operational plan soon he said, adding, “I think people will be happy that we put together an operational plan that addresses just about every issue in the ordinance or the public hearings.”

Although Tranchemontagne said the company is not ready to release all the details of the operational plan immediately, he said the plan addresses most of the issues brought up in the town’s racetrack ordinance and at public hearings. He said the company will make the plan available on its website, and hopes to have copies available at public locations in town, like town hall or the library, if that is possible.

Among the items in the plan are limits on sound, both for individual vehicles and for the track.

CMI: Average noise limit to 89 dBA at 50 feet

Tranchemontagne said Club Motorsports refined its limits based on information gathered at six racing facilities, and the standards of the Sports Car Club of America.

The SCCA sets limits of 103 decibels at 50 feet from a vehicle. “We going to be lower than that during all hours of operation,” Tranchemontagne said. Club Motorsports operational plan calls for a limit of 99 decibels at 50 feet, and an average of sound generated on the road course of 89 decibels at 50 feet.

The limits for individual cars would come with a three-strikes policy. If a car generates too much noise, the owner would be given two opportunities to fix it. If it still makes too much noise, the owner would not be allowed to run it on the track that day or again until the noise problem was fixed.

“We’re most interested in making sure we’re not being noisy to the community,” Tranchemontagne said. If there’s a problem, he said, “We’re going to give [drivers] the opportunity to fix it. If they can’t, they can’t run.”

The operational plan defines hours and days of operation, lighting, and numbers of cars anticipated to be using the course on weekdays and weekend days.

On a typical weekday, between 10 and 50 vehicles are expected to be on the course; on a weekend the number is about 100. Although he did not get into all the details of the hours of operation, Tranchemontagne said, there will be no driving on the course, revving of the engines or generating noise in the paddock area on Sunday mornings before 11 a.m.

The track will not be in operation year-round, and there will be no snowmobile racing there, he said. “Snowmobile racing will not be allowed. This is why we want to publish the operating plan. There are so many rumors out there,” he said. He said the plan will allow snowshoeing or cross-country skiing for the residents of Tamworth when the facility is closed for the winter.

There will also be no lighting on the course and no driving on it after dark.

The big issue

Michael Hicks, of the Army Corps of Engineers, said having an independent analysis of the two conflicting sound studies (one done by Club Motorsports and one commissioned by the Tamworth Foundation) and determining how much noise the facility will generate was the most difficult part of evaluating Club Motorsports application.

“The sound was the big issue,” Hicks said. Other than evaluating the sound studies and that, he said, “There was nothing that gave us trouble with the analysis.”

Kate Vachon, of Focus: Tamworth said she is glad to know that the Army Corps took concerns about the noise factors seriously and worked to have limits in the application. She said she could not comment on the operational plan yet, since the organization has a copy of it but has not had a chance to review it.

In reviewing applications, the corps’ first priority is to look at the effects on water and wetlands. But once a project comes under its review, the corps can look at other factors, such as noise, aesthetics, historic values and traffic, and how those factors might affect the community.

In this case, the application and response from the community has been out of proportion to the relatively small area of wetlands (less than three-quarters of an acre) to be disturbed, Hicks said.

The corps hired Acentech to evaluate the sound studies. Hicks said both sound studies were good, but that the company found problems with both of them as well, and came back with its own recommendations.

The Tamworth Foundation sponsored study, which recommended a limit of 69 decibels at the property boundary, was a competent one, and approached the issue from the point of view that the facility would be a racetrack but, Hicks said, “They used a very strict criteria,” for evaluating and recommending limits on sound.

“The applicant’s sound study was very good,” Hicks said, but he added that the company approached the issue, as if the road course was a transportation system (a road), and used that as its criteria for evaluating and proposing sound limits. The Army Corps took a different approach, he said. “We decided we want to call it a racetrack in our sound study and evaluate it as a racetrack.”

The Corps then went to Club Motorsports with the results of its own analysis, Hicks said, and told the company it needed to submit a plan that addressed noise issues. Based on Acentech’s recommendations, he said, “We said here’s a noise situation we think would be appropriate. They submitted a plan. That second plan we found acceptable.”

Hicks said the company then submitted another amended plan that would relax the noise limits, but the Army Corps rejected it.

The Corps did not specifically set conditions in the permit to address noise issues, Hicks said, since it does not have experts on noise to enforce such a condition.

So, he said, the sound limits for the facility are those proposed by the company’s operating plan.

“We would never condition a permit we cannot enforce,” he said, “But if they do something they did not apply for we could revoke that. If we go up there and find they are violating their operating plan, we have the power to revoke.”

“The town is going to have to be very proactive in monitoring this. In my opinion the responsibility falls on the town. They need to be aware and keep on top of this.

He added no reason to believe the company would deliberately violate the plan. “The applicant has given no indication that he is anything but honest,” Hicks said.

Hicks said the Army Corps would consider modifications of a proposed plan after it had been approved, but generally that would not be simply to loosen restrictions.

If an applicant found an unforeseen problem with a construction plan, and wanted to modify the application in order to accommodated it, for instance, that would be considered.