New Hampshire Business Review
Jan 5 2007

Club Motorsports Sues Tamworth

Club Motorsports Inc. has sued the town of Tamworth for denying a wetlands permit it needs to build a racetrack.

The company--which plans to build a private facility on the side of Mt Whittier for sports car enthusiasts--also filed a second application for a special use permit under the town's wetlands ordinance, a month after the town planning board rejected the first one.

The planning board cited the dangers of pollution in runoff, fuel spills from accidents and the harm to animal habitats in rejecting the developer's planned stream crossings.

The new permit application seeks a single road that would give the company access to its higher-elevation property, and does not seek multiple stream crossings, said company president and Chief Executive Lloyd Dahmen.

The lawsuit was the latest development in Club Motorsports' battle to build the track over the opposition of environmentalists. But it is the first time the town itself has been drawn into court.

Club Motorsports has been engaged in legal battles for years with Focus: Tamworth, which took it to court more than a year ago and won a ruling that it needed the town wetlands permit, in addition to federal and state permits. Now that the town has rejected that permit, the company is moving forward with a state Supreme Court appeal of that ruling.

Focus: Tamworth also is appealing some of the higher-level permits, including one from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers setting acceptable noise limits.