CMI's wetlands permit up for grabs at public hearing

Another appeal by Focus: Tamworth

Nate Giarnese

TAMWORTH —As racetrack builder Club Motorsports Inc. prepares to appear before a rapt regional audience here at a key public permit hearing later this month, its staunchest opponents announced their appeal this week of a major federal permitting victory earned by the company about a year ago.

The challenge to an already issued U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water-related permit is the latest in a long running string of court actions taken by citizen's group Focus: Tamworth . The group and its lawyers earlier won a ruling forcing CMI to return to Tamworth for a local wetlands permit. The long-awaited public hearing, once expected to happen two years ago before CMI pulled its application, is set for Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. at the K.A. Brett School .

After making known its displeasure with the Army Corps several months ago, Focus:Tamworth confirmed this week that it had filed a challenge in a Concord court against the company's hard-won federal environmental permit. Corps engineers, echoing state wetlands authorities, found the company's plans to build its mountainside driving track would not ruin wetlands or bring excessive noise and other environmental degradation.

In a second announcement on the same day, Focus:Tamworth also declared CMI's newest plans do not meet the rigorous restrictions of Tamworth's Wetlands Ordinance, and said CMI's latest permit application should be denied. At the upcoming hearing, local citizens and officials from area towns will be asked to comment. Minus three members who recused themselves after CMI accused them of bias, the planning board is expected to rule on the approval in the following months.

CMI President and CEO Lloyd Dahmen said his company was unfazed by a recent conservation commission recommendation to reject his application. The commission has crossed swords with CMI before, as its chairman this summer rose publicly to defend the ordinance against charges by Dahmen that it was used selectively to target him.

“It's only advisory,” Dahmen said of the conservation finding. “We believe we will make our case appropriately before the planning board.”

Dahmen would not hint at whether CMI would consider breaking ground while still facing the federal appeal, should the local hearing bring another permitting victory.

“It will give everybody a chance to get up and speak their minds,” he said.

Tuesday's hearing promises another standing-room-only crowd and an outpouring of opinion on the consistently contentious issue. A first Army Corps permit hearing drew hundreds, with the vast majority lambasting CMI for tactics many called underhanded.

Focus: Tamworth has lobbied for years to force the multi-million-dollar private getaway for well-heeled drivers and their fast cars to comply with local regulations. The citizen's group, apparently also well-funded, won a key legal battle before a judge recently, forcing the public hearing after CMI backed out of a similar local showing in 2004 at the last minute.

Meanhile, drawing new skirmishes in the slow-plodding legal war, CMI has earned several critical permits from state and federal authorities. Focus: Tamworth has filed several appeals.

“I would observe that in the past two years Focus: Tamworth has filed several lawsuits, we have filed none,” Dahmen said. “We are trying as best we can to work out these issues with the town.”

But over the course of the long and complex dispute that predates Dahmen's presidency, CMI has threatened to sue Tamworth at least once, prompting outrage from many who felt the company sought to subvert the democratic process.

The local wetlands permit now up for grabs was ruled a regional issue because of the massive project's potential for wide-ranging impact. Several Madison homeowners on nearby Silver Lake have added their names to the Army Corps appeal because the track faces their lakefront homes, Focus: Tamworth representatives said.

In a second press release challenging the Army Corps permit, Focus: Tamworth spokesperson Charles Greenhalgh cited a noisy off-road show near the site where CMI plans its three-mile asphalt run. Greenhalgh, a local lawyer, said a slew of complaints over next-door Ossipee's summertime four-wheel festival “illustrates how objectionable the noise from recreational motor vehicles can be without significant noise restrictions.”

A first showcase in August of trucks, ATV's and dirt bikes drew multiple complaints. But after a second smaller-scale event, organizer Falcon Extreme Motorsports won accolades from officials and complaining neighbors for its diligence in controlling noise from booming public address speakers. Even so, a nearby business wasn't “thrilled” by the disruptions.

Dahmen said he was at one of the events and that it had little of the expert engineering he says his track will rely on to cut sound.

It is over noise that Focus: Tamworth is challenging the Corps approval. Engineers said they considered a sweeping array of environmental and human factors. Noise was a key element, and perhaps the most contentious.

After a round of rigorous sound investigations, Focus: Tamworth boldly charged that the Army Corps had ignored its own expert. Addressing a stalemate between one sound study backed by Focus:Tamworth and another put forward by CMI, the agency's third-party-contracted sound engineer James Cowan wrote: “The frequency content and the duration of noise events that could be caused by this facility will sound like no other sound sources in the area. Without appropriate limits, this will change the environment of the Tamworth area.”

But when the Army Corps issued the permit with a higher-than-expected limit, Focus: Tamworth demanded an explanation.

“We at least wanted to hear why the Corps chose to ignore the clear recommendations of its own expert,” Greenhalgh said. “But the Corps simply reaffirmed its decision and offered no rationale or explanation for its actions, so we have taken the next step and brought the matter to U.S. District Court.”