Conway Daily Sun
2006-08-28

One planner steps down, others refuse as town tackles CMI track permit

Sparks smolder in recusal standoff amid suggestions of bias by planner

Nate Giarnese

TAMWORTH — One planner voluntarily stepped aside, but two refused after a lawyer for auto track builder Club Motorsports Inc. insisted three town officials should remove themselves from voting on the company's bid for a permit that could pave the way for its contentious automotive country club.

Appearances here by the Derry developer almost always bring a spectacle. Sparks flew but did not ignite into road rage Wednesday night at the Tamworth Planning Board meeting. Instead, tensions and curiosity poured out of a cramped town hall meeting room where planners, in an advisory vote, asked one of their own to recuse himself from deliberations.

After a declaration by a CMI lawyer that the potential for bias could plague a special use wetlands permit review, the board called for Tom Cleveland to recuse himself. But the board backed Dom Bergen in a split vote, saying recusal was not necessary. A third planner, Herb Cooper, recused himself at the start of the meeting.

Cleveland , like Bergen , is a past public critic of the CMI plan to lay a three-mile asphalt course and country club for high-priced cars high on the side of Mount Whittier . He said he was insulted that he was asked to back down from what may be the most agonized-over issue in this small but diverse town in decades.

Cleveland, who recused himself from a similar CMI application two years ago after a bid to remove him reportedly threatened to reach the courts, again was defiant in the face of pressure from company officials. He said duly elected members cannot be forced to recuse themselves. And he did not, despite the board vote.

Bergen , too, said he found it offensive that voters who elected him knowing well his stance on the potent track debate would be asked to forfeit his representation.

On Aug. 23, the planning board accepted CMI's special use permit application, two years after CMI declared the company did not think it needed permission under the town law to break ground. A local conservation commission will review the plans and could make a strictly advisory recommendation to planners, who will vote whether CMI has earned the permit under the town's wetlands ordinance.

The apparent coming of the track has wreaked untold havoc on the town's eclectic makeup of blue collar, white collar, wealthy and poorer residents. It has driven rifts between neighbors, and reportedly turned some away from patronizing businesses run by known sympathizers with the other side.

Many want it, many don't. Still, many more are overwhelmed by the politics that have accompanied the review process.

“I suspect that it be hard to find somebody doesn't have an opinion,” Bergen said.

Cleveland, who acknowledged in the past taking a public position against CMI, said he would vote to approve the review being opened into the largely technical wetlands permit application on its own merits, so long as it was complete. The board ultimately found it was complete, and will now begin its work. Cleveland said he expected no less fairness on the other side.

“I always intended to be fair, just as if some other members of the planning board believed CMI could be a good addition to our community, they would have to vote against the acceptance” if the application had proved inadequate, he said.

But CMI lawyer Greg Smith likened the board to a jury pool he said risked tainting by the public positions of the trio.

Of a letter Smith said was written by Cleveland in opposition to CMI, Smith said: “That would disqualify someone from sitting as a juror.”

Declaring a public hearing to be held in roughly the next 45 days, chairman David Goodson led his board's vote to accept the company's application under the formal review process. Planners, including Cleveland , left with thick white binders of CMI's revised plans, showing how the company expects its drawn wetlands crossings do not violate a town ordinance.

Goodson at times had to rein in the audience. At meetings prior, crowds have shown that at any time a tense calm can break into shouts and speech-making.

“Were not opening this up to the whole shooting gallery here,” Goodson said at a moment when an audience member stood up and spoke out. The remark came just after a brief conversation involving Cleveland, CMI president Lloyd Dahmen and a reporter.

The fire chief called for an immediate halt to the sometimes diverging, but peaceful and mostly controlled proceedings, calling the public mass overflowing the room into the halls and even out of doors “unsafe,” “unfair” and a violation of the fire code.

“We are well over capacity for this building,” Fire Chief Stephen Solomon said, noting the tendency of CMI matters to stuff the halls. He also called attention to the “people poking themselves in the windows.”

Craning outdoor peepers had pressed their white faces against the window screens of a back wall. Framed by the black of night, these vigilant ghosts peered from only inches behind planners, changing spots several times, as the meeting's muted wrangling started late, and ran late.

Calling for microphones, many in the halls said they could hear little of what was said 10 feet away inside the standing-room only space.

Conservation chair disputes CMI's charge of being targeted by town wetlands rule

CMI supporter stands apart in crowded room of track opponents

Reporter Nate Giarnese can be contacted at nate@conwaydailysun.com.