NEWS RELEASE -- Focus: Tamworth

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Kate Vachon, press coordinator
603 323 8224
focus@focustamworth.org

(spokesperson Charles Greenhalgh is temporarily unavailable.)

Senate transportation committee to hear amended HB 90 repeal bill

Citizens’ group will continue to lobby for the restoration of local control of race courses

(TAMWORTH, NH, April 14)

HB 90, the bill that passed the NH House 273-76 on April 6 in a surprise upset of a committee recommendation, will be considered by the Senate Transportation and Interstate Cooperation Committee on its way to a vote by the full Senate before the end of the 2005 session. The committee has scheduled a hearing on the bill on Wednesday, April 20 at 9:20 AM in Concord.

Volunteer “citizen lobbyists” from Tamworth vowed to work hard to see that the bill also passes the Senate. Their presence in Concord wearing yellow “HB 90 ought to pass” badges was credited by several legislators as a factor in the positive House vote.

More than a dozen residents of Tamworth and surrounding towns spent three days in Concord in late March and early April as the house voted on bills that were ready to “cross over” to the Senate for consideration. The local residents talked to many representatives about the state-wide importance of the bill.

“This is not just about Tamworth,” explained Kate Vachon, a member of the steering committee for the Focus: Tamworth citizens group. “This bill affects local control for all of the 234 towns across the state.”

HB 90 makes a change to RSA 287-G, which the same Senate transportation committee passed in last year’s session as SB 458. RSA 287-G defines “private driving instruction and exhibition facilities” and exempts them from regulation by towns. A long-standing NH law, RSA 31:42, allows towns to regulate facilities that can have a disproportionate local impact, including racetracks, amusement parks and outdoor theaters. HB 90, as amended by the House on April 6, removes the section of RSA 287-G that exempts “private driving instruction and exhibition  facilities” from regulation as racetracks. This allows communities to regulate them if they are, in fact, operating as racetracks, even if they are also “private driving instruction and exhibition facilities” as defined in the law. “Passing the amended law lets developers and towns work out the issues of regulation on a case-by-case basis,” Vachon noted.

Club Motorsports, Inc (CMI), the developer that wants to build a private racetrack for high-performance cars and motorcycles in Tamworth, makes no secret of the fact that it intends to rent its track to Sports Car Club of American and motorcycle groups, which conduct time trials and other kinds of races for their members.

CMI has admitted that it quietly pushed RSA 287-G through the legislature last year so that it could avoid regulation by Tamworth’s Race Track Ordinance. The Tamworth RTO was written in the summer of 2003, with participation from CMI, after the town heard about the developer’s plans. The RTO regulates 22 different aspects of any racetrack in Tamworth, including noise, hours of operation and handling of hazardous fuels.

The Tamworth selectmen signed the RTO into law on October 1, and the 2004 Tamworth Town Meeting ratified it with an 84% vote in favor on March 10, 2004. But although no one in Tamworth was aware of it, RSA 287-G had already been signed by then-governor Craig Benson.

At the 2005 Town Meeting, voters passed a Noise Ordinance to set limits for noise from “private driving instruction and exhibition facilities.” But since Tamworth has no comprehensive zoning ordinance, hours of operation, fuel handling and other racetrack operations will remain exempt from local control unless HB 90 passes to repeal that exemption. “Although Tamworth residents have repeatedly voted against zoning, we have shown by two decisive Town Meeting votes that we do want regulation for race tracks,” Vachon said. “We hope that the Senate will pass HB 90 as amended and give Tamworth and all other New Hampshire towns the ability to do that.”

The Senate committee that will hear the bill is the same one that passed SB 458/RSA 287-G in 2004, although membership has changed somewhat from last session. It is chaired by Robert Letourneau, (R, Derry, Dist. 19), and includes Charles Morse, vice-chair  (R, Salem, Dist. 22), Robert Flanders (R, Antrim, Dist. 7), André Martel (R, Manchester, Dist. 18), Peter Burling (D, Cornish, Dist. 5), and Iris Estabrook, (D, Durham, Dist. 21).

At the 2004 hearing on SB 458/RSA 287-G, the only person to testify was a paid lobbyist for CMI. That will certainly not be the case at the hearing on HB 90. “We hope that the committee will take this opportunity to re-examine the ramifications of the bill they passed last year with so little public input, and agree to modify it to restore the local control that is so important to New Hampshire,” Vachon said.  

Focus: Tamworth is a coalition of local residents who support careful and fair regulations that protect Tamworth’s economic and natural resources. More information on Focus: Tamworth is available at www.focustamworth.org.

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