9/14/2005

Army Corps issues permit for Tamworth track

Club Motorsports may build office at Mount Whittier

Nate Giarnese

TAMWORTH—U.S Army Corps of Engineers has issued Club Motorsports Inc. a permit to build a $28 million motorsports country club, a major step towards groundbreaking on Mount Whittier, the company announced on Wednesday.

While the company isn't ready to lay asphalt for its planned 3.1 mile road course, at least until settling a legal matter, it may build an office at the site off Route 25, in a spot away from wetlands.

"We're considering starting building on a site location outside wetlands," said Scott Tranchemontagne, spokesman.

The federal permit is the third major state and federal environmental approval granted to Club Motorsports since July 2004, when N.H. Department of Environmental Services found that the 251-acre project poses no significant threat to wetlands. In September 2004, the state also found CMI would not significantly pollute the nearby Bearcamp River or its tributaries.

"We are extremely pleased that Valley Motorsports Park has met the Army Corps' rigorous environmental permitting standards," Club Motorsports President and CEO Lloyd Dahmen said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon.

Dahmen said engineers and environmental experts have spent over 6,000 hours to ensure the 251-acre project will not harm the environment.

"In many instances the technology and techniques we will use to protect the environment go above what is required," he said. "Without question this is a major step forward in our project."

But before breaking ground, the Derry company must contend with a lawsuit brought by a local citizens group, Focus: Tamworth.

Focus, in a suit scheduled for a hearing in Rockingham Superior Court on Dec. 19, asks a judge to force the Derry developer to comply with a town wetlands ordinance. Focus says the town ordinance is stricter than federal and state regulations.

Should building begin before the suit is settled, Focus says it will ask the judge to reinstate a temporary court injunction to halt construction.

Focus press coordinator Kate Vachon said on Wednesday that she didn't know enough about the possibility of Club Motorsports building an office to comment specifically in relation to a potential injunction.

Vachon also said the Army Corps permit imposed "some very interesting noise limits," on the project.

"We think it's very unusual for the Army Corps," Vachon said.

Last winter Army Corps attorneys announced that their own sound engineers would parse two conflicting studies, each predicting a different level of noise would be generated by vehicles racing around the 3.1 mile track.

Club Motorsports commissioned one study, which conflicts with another paid for by the Tamworth Foundation. Focus has cited the latter in arguments that track noise will be disruptive.

"We were very pleased to see that the Army Corps considered noise enough of an issue to put in a permit," Vachon said.

Tranchemontagne said on Wednesday that in the next few weeks Club Motorsports will publish an operating plan to show how it will run the track to comply with the Army Corps' sound limits.

The plan, which will be made available to the people of Tamworth, will also demonstrate how the track will operate in accord with other regulations and community needs.

"When you see this plan it will show how we're going to operate responsibly in other areas," Tranchemontagne said. "Lights, hours of operation, and the sound levels in the Army Corps permits."

The administrative building could be used as a sales office, and probably won't be visible from the road, he said.