Citizens' group files for court injunction against CMI

Developer says fight with presumptive 'die-hard activists' a chore

Nate Giarnese

TAMWORTH—A group of Tamworth residents asked Rockingham County Superior Court Friday to force Club Motorsports Inc. to obtain three local permits before breaking ground on a proposed 251-acre motorsports park and driving club on the north bank of Mt. Whittier in Tamworth.

The "huge, over an inch thick... petition for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief,” according to a court clerk, was filed by Focus: Tamworth attorneys on behalf of 46 Tamworth taxpayers.
The Derry company called the filing a stall tactic by a group of die-hard activists acting under false assumptions about the project's construction timeline. A CMI spokesman said Tuesday that the company's building schedule and its plans for future permit applications are now being kept internal due to ongoing acts of opposition by Focus.

CMI has not applied for permits under the town's hazardous waste or subdivision ordinances, and withdrew a wetlands ordinance permit application in August, to the dismay of area citizens who planned to attend the well-publicized permit hearing. CMI said after the ineffectual hearing, that it would file applications with town boards only when the company deemed it necessary. All three local permits apply to the development project and are needed before the company starts construction, according to the injunction request.

Local control over the project was stripped from the town in March, when a new state law made moot a town race track ordinance within days of its passage at town meeting. The law separated expansive Loudon-style spectator tracks from the kind of smaller-scale practice course CMI plans for its Tamworth property. The bill has been called "innocuous" and "excellent" by sponsors who said the redefinition of an old term would allow a new kind of business into a changing state economy. Detractors of the law have howled in outrage that the bill's passage was a covert and unscrupulous robbery of their right to regulate local development.

A bill has since been filed by local legislators to repeal the law on that basis.

“It was CMI’s history of avoiding local control that led us to take this step,” said Focus: Tamworth spokesman Charles Greenhalgh. “The Hazardous Waste, Wetlands and Subdivision ordinances were designed to protect Tamworth, and we want to be sure that they are fully enforced.”

Members of the group have crouched behind various watchdog persona trying to hide their true purpose- "kill the project," — charged CMI spokesman Scott Tranchemontage Tuesday. He called the injunction request the latest move in a many-month series to delay and ultimately block construction in Tamworth. "When Focus is not trying to kill the project outright, they try to delay it. That's what this action appears to be all about," Tranchemontagne said.

Focus he said based its request for court intervention not on fact, but on false assumptions about what permits the company plans to apply for and when construction is set to begin. "Once again Focus:Tamworth has made assumptions about our timeline, and they are just that, assumptions," Tranchemontagne said. "We don't owe it to our opponents to tell them our timeline," he said. "It seems a little bit presumptive to file for injunctive relief,"

Focus contends that the group is not out to stop the track, and that their sole purpose is to ensure CMI complies with all local regulations. A decision by the courts could take several months, Focus expects.

The Derry company says it is currently focused solely on responding to a list of questions from the U.S Army Corps as part of a permit review process.

CMI has so far secured two state level permits from the Department of Environmental Services, and has applied for a third environmental permit currently under review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Focus has appealed one of the state DES wetlands permits to the N.H. Wetlands Council.