Claremont
The 5-0 decision means City Planner Mike McCrory and the speedway owners now will discuss the guidelines and rules to allow race teams to stay overnight at the track, either the night before or after Friday night racing. Though the term “camping” was used during the discussion, Anthony DiPadova, the attorney representing the speedway, told the board there would be no electricity, sanitation, water or campfires associated with the overnight stays and everyone would be gone by 10 a.m.
The board ruled that McCrory erred when he denied a request to allow overnight stays at the racetrack parking lot, a long-standing practice banned last year by the city. McCrory wrote in late May that “overnight camping incidental to race track operations isn’t a pre-existing, non-conforming use.” The term applies to uses that don’t meet current zoning regulations but are grandfathered in because they existed before those regulations were written in 1976.
In a July 3 memo to the ZBA, McCrory laid out several reasons for his decision, including the lack of a record of approvals for overnight camping as an accessory use.
“Even if the city staff concedes, with documentation, that overnight camping by the race teams is a long-standing use on the property, the variance received to permit a campground changes the effective structure of permitted uses on the property,” McCrory wrote.
The variance, approved last year, was for a 149-site seasonal campground on another area of the same property, not at the racetrack.
At Tuesday’s meeting, DiPadova, who appealed McCrory’s decision, said there has been a long history of some teams staying overnight after the races at the Thrasher Road speedway, which opened as dirt track in 1947.
“Overnight parking and camping has never been prohibited and has been taking place for well over 40 years, before zoning ordinances,” DiPadova said.
Approval of the campground variance did not take away the grandfathered right, he said.
The reason the owners want to allow overnight stays is to give those who travel long distances, such as racers and visitors from Connecticut or Canada, a good night’s rest before getting back on the road.
A few people whose affiliation with the track goes back decades, told the board they always remember campers, from just a few to as many as 15, in the parking lot after racing.
“It has never been a problem and has always been allowed,” former racer Ernie Boudreau said.
One of the owners, Jim Ambrose, said the practice has been ongoing for more than 50 years, as long as he had been around the track.
“They have always been able to stay in the parking lot. It was done the first year we owned the track (2015). In the second year, someone called the police and the (city) attorney said they can’t stay there,” Ambrose said. “Now it has become a problem for us.”
Abutters to the track, while acknowledging they have seen campers in the parking lot over the years, argued it has been in violation of city code.
“It is a lack of code enforcement,” Thrasher Road resident Chuck Egbert said.
When asked pointedly by ZBA Chairman Michael Hurd if there is a history of race teams staying overnight, Egbert said he didn’t think it was a legal history and it should not be allowed regardless of how long it has been going on.
“If you break the law long enough, then it becomes all right?” he asked.
Another concern of Egbert’s and other abutters is how the parking will be policed and the conditions enforced.
Egbert said he saw fire pits with burned tires a few years ago and worries the decision will open the door to more and more people staying in the lot.
“This is going to be a stepping stone to full-blown transient camping for an entertainment venue,” Egbert said.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
