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FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Focus: Tamworth spokesperson:
Charles Greenhalgh
603 356-5439 x 516
If unavailable:
Kate Vachon, press coordinator
603 323 8224
focus@focustamworth.org
Superior Court orders CMI to obtain town wetlands permit
(TAMWORTH, NH, December 8, 2005) The Rockingham County, NH
Superior Court ruled on Monday that developer Club Motorsports Inc
must apply for and obtain a Special Use Permit under the Tamworth
Wetlands Ordinance before it can start construction of its private
racetrack on the north slope of Mt. Whittier in Tamworth, NH. The
"summary judgment" ruling was in response to a suit brought
by a number of Tamworth residents and St Andrews-in-the-Valley
Episcopal Church after CMI said that the town wetlands ordinance
should not apply to its development.
Focus: Tamworth spearheaded the citizens’ group that brought the
suit. “We are gratified that the court has sided with us,” said
Charles Greenhalgh, Focus: Tamworth spokesperson. “This is truly a
victory for local control, and big step toward local regulation of
this massive project.
“The victory is not only for Tamworth,” Greenhalgh added, “but
also for municipalities throughout the state. The court has clearly
said that local wetlands ordinances can be applied more stringently,
even when federal or state wetlands permits have been granted.
“With this court order behind us, and the very positive resolution
of our challenge to CMI’s water quality permit, we are now free to
turn our attention to the recently granted Army Corps of Engineers
permit. We feel that there may be grounds for a challenge.”
In the summer of 2004, CMI applied for a Special Use Permit under the
Tamworth Wetlands Ordinance, but withdrew its application shortly
before the scheduled Tamworth Planning Board hearing. At the time, CMI
said that the application “exceeds our permitting needs.” In
December 2004, a group of Tamworth residents and taxpayers filed a
suit asking the court to require that CMI apply for the Special Use
Permit. Trial was set for December 19 and 20, but will no longer be
necessary because of this court order.
The suit also sought to force CMI to go before Town Meeting for a
hazardous waste permit as required under the Tamworth Hazardous Waste
Ordinance. That request was denied since the state has put in place
hazardous waste regulations that supercede all local regulations.
A third element of the lawsuit, a request that CMI apply for a
subdivision permit, was made moot by CMI’s purchase and boundary
line adjustment of an additional parcel of land earlier this year.
In the court order, Judge Kenneth R. McHugh said, “In New Hampshire,
a municipality is not estopped from creating more restrictive rules on
wetlands issues than those set out by the state Wetlands Board… The
Town of Tamworth, which has no general zoning ordinance, enacted the
Wetlands Conservation Ordinance as an ‘Innovative Land Use
Control’ pursuant to RSA 674:21. The WCO is a narrative ordinance
that can be read to unilaterally block all development that will
negatively affect a wetland or aquifer in the Town of Tamworth unless
a Special Use Permit is issued by the Planning Board… It is the
simplicity of the WCO - its plain language of intent to ‘prevent the
development of structures ... on naturally occurring wetlands’ and
‘protect water supplies and existing aquifers’ -- that
persuades the Court that the ordinance could prove, once applied to
this project, to be far more stringent than state or federal wetlands
law.”
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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