Citizen group sees serious
problems with CMI operating plan
Focus: Tamworth asks CMI to
demonstrate how its plan will comply with noise limits and “quiet
hours” of the Tamworth Noise Ordinance
TAMWORTH,
NH, September 27, 2005: As a condition of its recently-granted permit
from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Club Motorsports Inc (CMI) has
submitted the outline of an operating plan that includes limits on
vehicle noise. The plan, which also covers hours of operation, is a
requirement of the permit issued by the Army Corps.
But the
proposed limits, which apply only to the noise generated by individual
vehicles, would inevitably cause the facility to violate the Tamworth
Noise Ordinance, citizen watchdog group Focus: Tamworth has determined.
The
Tamworth Noise Ordinance limits the noise generated at the property
boundary of facilities like CMI’s. CMI’s proposed sound restrictions
on individual vehicles are set so high that noise limits at the property
boundary would certainly be exceeded. The plan’s hours of operation
also conflict with the quiet times set by the noise ordinance.
“We
challenge CMI to demonstrate how this operating plan will comply with
the Tamworth Noise Ordinance limit of 69 dBA instantaneous maximum level
at the property boundary, and how it will conform to the schedule of
quiet times in the ordinance,” said Charles Greenhalgh, Focus:
Tamworth spokesperson.
CMI
wants to build a 251-acre private race track for fast cars and
motorcycles on the north slope of Mt. Whittier in Tamworth.
In the
summer of 2003, sound expert Christopher Menge of Harris Miller Miller
& Hanson Inc. conducted a detailed study of noise generated by the
kind of event that CMI proposes to hold at its facility. After examining
the operating plan, which CMI submitted as a component of its Army Corps
wetlands permit, Menge said, “The proposed sound restrictions have
very limited effect, will permit most of the louder vehicles to operate
at the track, and do not change the conclusions of the noise study we
conducted two years ago. Those conclusions were that without effective
vehicle noise limits and noise-control shielding elements, the community
reaction to the noise from racing operations will be negative.”
CMI’s track design does not include any kind of sound control
elements, such as berms or sound barrier walls.
Menge
continued: “The sounds of racing have a very different character from
the existing ambient sounds in the community, and therefore will be
clearly audible for a high percentage of the time. This will represent a
big change in the sound environment that residents have become
accustomed to. Existing quiet periods will be dominated by racing
noise.”
The CMI
operating plan indicates that racing will take place from 8 AM to 7 PM,
with a “quiet time” until 11 AM on Sunday. The Tamworth Noise
Ordinance sets “quiet time” noise limits before 8 AM and after 6 PM,
and until 12 noon on Sunday.
“This
operating plan will clearly cause CMI to violate the Tamworth Noise
Ordinance,” said Focus: Tamworth spokesperson Greenhalgh. “By
issuing this unilateral operating plan, CMI’s officials have created their own standards, and ignored the
town ordinance. They are thumbing their noses at the Tamworth voters who
adopted the Noise Ordinance in 2005, just as they did to Tamworth voters
who adopted the Race Track Ordinance in 2004, when they got RSA 287-G
passed in Concord.”
Greenhalgh
continues, “CMI has designed a project that can’t comply with our
local ordinance, and its officials clearly know that. This has been
their approach on noise from the beginning: they haven’t accepted the
town’s authority to set any noise limits.”
The
Army Corps permit, Greenhalgh points out, includes Condition 2.a, which
says “This permit does not obviate the need to obtain other Federal,
state, or local authorizations required by law.”
Focus:
Tamworth has taken CMI to court over its failure to acknowledge another
town ordinance, the Tamworth Wetlands Ordinance, which has been on the
town’s books since 1980 and has been updated several times since. That
case, which seeks a declaratory judgment that CMI must apply for a
Special Use Permit under the Tamworth Wetlands Ordinance, will be heard
in Rockingham County Superior Court on December 19th. CMI has
claimed that the Tamworth Wetlands Ordinance “exceeds the permitting
needs of the project.”
In
addition, Focus: Tamworth is challenging CMI’s 401 Water Quality
certificate, issued by the NH Department of Environmental Services in
April, 2005. Focus: Tamworth argues that the facility as currently
designed would release pollutants into the local water supply. A hearing
before the New Hampshire Water Council, a 16-member group that
hears appeals of water permits that are not related to wetlands, is
scheduled on November 9.
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.
Note to
editors: a .pdf file of the operating plan attached to CMI’s Army
Corps permit is available from Focus: Tamworth. Please e-mail focus@focustamworth.org.
|