Tamworth Planning Board members asked to recuse themselves
 
TAMWORTH — Tamworth Planning Board members accepted a wetlands application from Club Motorsports at a meeting last Wednesday night.

The meeting was held in the meeting room in the Tamworth Town Offices building. Members of the public filled the room and crowded into the hallway to try to hear the planning board's discussion around submission of the wetlands permit.

Eventually, some moved outside and gathered around the four windows to the room in order to hear the discussion. Those outside the room said it was difficult to hear all that was being said inside.

Tamworth Fire Chief Steve Solomon requested that the meeting be moved to another location for safety purposes.

"We are well over capacity for this building. I really think that it is both unsafe and unfair to continue in this venue," he said.

Planning board Chairman David Goodson rejected the idea, saying that the board was only a determination as to whether or not to accept the application as complete. A public hearing was planned for a later date, and would be held in a larger room, he said.

Solomon responded, "It is still a public meeting. I think it would be in the best interest of the town to adjourn to a larger venue."

But Goodson continued the meeting at the town offices.

Prior to the board discussing the permit application, attorney Greg Smith, representing Club Motorsports, presented letters and made formal requests that planning board members Herbert Cooper, Thomas Cleveland and Dominic Bergen and Tamworth Conservation Commissioners Donna Veilleux, Scott Aspinall, Claes Thelemarck and William Batchelder recuse themselves from their respective boards for consideration of the application.

Smith said the law requires that Club Motorsports raise the issue of recusals at the outset before the board begins considering an application. The letters further asks that any members of the planning board or conservation commission "who are or have been involved with those opposed to the applicants development and or have formed a prejudgment and will be unable to act impartially be recused from consideration of this project."

Smith said state law requires planning boards act impartially, not unlike a jury, when hearing applications. He said the conservation commission, as another land use board, also fell under this law.

Cooper immediately recused himself. Cleveland and Bergin did not.

Both Cooper and Cleveland had recused themselves the last time the planning board was asked to consider a wetlands application from Club Motorsports, after the company had taken the matter to court. Cleveland said he believed that as a planning board member he could fairly judge whether the wetlands application was in compliance with the town wetlands ordinance.

Bergin said no judge has ordered him to recuse himself, and said his personal opinion would not get in the way of his acting impartially. "I suspect it would be hard in a small town to find someone who doesn't have an opinion," he said. "Nor have I exhibited any bias."

Alternate Steve Gray was appointed to fill Cooper's seat, then planning board members voted on whether or not Cleveland and Bergin should recuse themselves. The board voted 2-4 in favor of Bergin recusing himself, and 4-3 in favor of Cleveland recusing himself. Neither board member then stepped down.

The recusal request also affected a presentation Conservation Commission Chairman John Mersfelder had been prepared to give to the board during public comment. Mersfelder brought a letter from the Conservation Commission regarding easements.

Smith asked the board not to hear the letter, since it had been crafted by a commission, the majority of whose members were being asked to recuse themselves.

Although Mersfelder said he believed the letter was not controversial in any way, he decided not to read it at the planning board meeting.

In addition to the request for recusal, Smith commented to the board on a presentation the lawyer for Focus: Tamworth had given to the board in July. He said the attorney had overstated the court's ruling and made it sound as though the planning board had to turn down Club Motorsports application. That was not what the court determined, he said. The judge only ruled that the town wetlands application could be interpreted more strictly than state and federal regulations with which the company had already complied. He further said the project will have only a small affect on wetlands, with less than an acre of wetlands affected, and little adverse affect other than stormwater management.

Attorney Sherri Young, who was present Wednesday, said she had not told the board that it had to turn down the application. She had only explained that the judge had said that the town wetlands ordinance was more strict and allowed the town to review the application and make further requirements for compliance. The court order also stated that it was possible that the town did have the power to reject the application entirely. "My point was simply that there were certain aspects they were challenging and lost in court and should not be allowed to challenge," she said.

Following acceptance of the application as complete, board members voted that the application had regional impact and agreed to notify abutting towns and regional planning commissions.