PRESS RELEASE

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Focus: Tamworth spokesperson:

Charles Greenhalgh

603 356-5439 x 516

Home: 603 323-2908

If unavailable:

Kate Vachon, press coordinator

603 323 8224

focus@focustamworth.org

Tamworth Noise Ordinance petition submitted with 250 signatures

Ordinance would apply only to "private driving instruction and exhibition facilities"

(TAMWORTH, NH, January 27)

A petition for a tightly targeted noise ordinance was delivered today to the Tamworth Town Office. The petition was signed by 250 Tamworth voters.

The noise ordinance will be included on the Town Warrant and debated and voted on at the deliberative portion of Town Meeting on March 9, 2005.

The ordinance will restore one of the twenty-two elements of the town's Racetrack Ordinance (RTO), which was adopted by the selectmen in October, 2003 and affirmed by an 84% majority at Town Meeting in March 2004. The RTO was apparently invalidated by the quiet passage of SB 458 (now RSA 287-G) in early 2004. 

RSA 287-G defines a new type of facility, a "private driving instruction and exhibition facility," and exempts it from town RTOs. The bill did not come to the attention of Tamworth officials and residents until the beginning of May 2004.

"At this point Tamworth has no enforceable control over the operation of the proposed Club Motorsports Inc. (CMI) development, or over the activities of other groups that might rent the track," explained Charles Greenhalgh, Focus: Tamworth spokesperson. On its website, CMI actively solicits track rentals. It has been pursuing groups like Sports Car Club of America chapters and the Loudon Road Racing Series motorcycle competitions.

During the drafting of Tamworth's RTO, Club Motorsports recommended committee members and sent representatives to attend meetings. The committee eased the sound limits in the RTO after CMI threatened to sue the town if the limits were not changed. Club Motorsports' spokesman said to local papers that the RTO was "good for Tamworth" and was something that CMI could "live with."

Club Motorsports has admitted that it subsequently drafted and lobbied for RSA 287-G, which was signed by the governor a few days before the 2004 Town Meeting.

The noise ordinance that will be voted on at the 2005 Town Meeting would apply only to "private driving instruction and exhibition facilities." Focus: Tamworth lawyers have determined that the ordinance conforms to New Hampshire RSAs and is consistent with a recent court ruling upholding a town's right to create and enforce "reasonable" regulations. "The proposed ordinance is fair, legal, and constitutional," Greenhalgh said.

The new ordinance borrows the language of the RTO in setting a 69 dBA limit on noise at the property boundary. It also echoes the RTO's measurement method and reporting requirements. Its definition of private driving instruction and exhibition facilities is identical to the definition used in RSA 287-G .

Focus: Tamworth's team of analysts has determined that, based on the designs that CMI submitted to the NH Department of Environmental Services, the noise produced by the CMI facility would be between 80 and 99 dBA at the points where the track comes closest to the property boundary. CMI' design contains no sound-reduction measures.

Greenhalgh emphasized that the noise ordinance is not an attempt to stop the proposed CMI facility. "Without the RTO, Tamworth has no statutory local control of the racetrack's operations," Greenhalgh noted. "RSA 31:39, the 'Power to Make Bylaws' statute, is the best way to restore that control." Section (n) of the statute specifically allows towns to make ordinances regulating noise.

A professional study in the summer of 2003 showed that noise from CMI's proposed facility would impact nearby homes and businesses as well as the K.A. Brett School, St. Andrew's in the Valley Episcopal Church, and White Lake State Park. Noise pollution, the study pointed out, affects physical and psychological health. The Tamworth School Board has asked the selectmen to consider the education, health and welfare of students in any future noise ordinance decision.

"We think it's important for Tamworth to regain the only element of statutory local control available after RSA 287-G. To truly protect the town, we need an ordinance that can be enforced," said Greenhalgh in June. "We think this is the right way to accomplish that, and we are convinced it will stand up to a court challenge."

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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