Conway Daily Sun
2006-08-28

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

Vast scope of racetrack proposal triggered special use permit process, Mersfelder says

Nate Giarnese

TAMWORTH — Tamworth Conservation Commission chairman John Mersfelder Wednesday disputed a claim by Club Motorsports Inc. that the town's wetlands ordinance selectively targeted the controversial racetrack developer.

Mersfelder, who has at times has tangled with the company over its plans to turn more than 200 mountainside acres into a high-speed playground for auto enthusiasts, said the town's wetlands ordinance has been a deterrent to potential wetlands abuses for years.

Referring to CMI president Lloyd Dahmen's claim that it has been rarely, if ever used, Mersfelder said that's absolutely not the case.

“We've had many applications in the last two years,” Mersfelder said.

But Mersfelder acknowledged it was the CMI project, with its vast scope and its apparent intent to impact so many spread out wetlands, that spurred the town for the first time ever to implement the "special use" permit application feature of the old ordinance revised last around 1991.

Before CMI came to town several years ago, Mersfelder said, builders ostensibly were following the town's wetlands rules. But now, all local projects which appear poised to affect wetlands must apply in writing for a formal permit review, not only to the state, as they had before, but also to Tamworth .

“Had there been any large project to come along such as this, then obviously, that would have triggered” the special use permit process, Mersfelder said.

When the Tri-County CAP building went up on Route 16 years ago, its construction violated the ordinance. As a result, the builders of the public assistance agency were called back to repair damages, officials said.

“They were brought to task for it," Mersfelder said of the only violation of the ordinance he said was on record.

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. Mersfelder's commission will review the plans and could make a strictly advisory recommendation to planners, who will vote whether CMI has earned the permit.