The tree-clearing battle near Lowe's Motor Speedway isn't the first instance a company headed by Bruton Smith agreed to protect trees and then tore them down.

Four years ago, angry York County planning officials delayed the opening of a Sonic Automotive car dealership off I-77 after they said the company promised to save hundreds of trees and then ripped them down. Smith said he wasn't involved in the dispute. His signature, however, appears on documents in the county case files.

Today, the York County officials are still fuming over the incident and say they aren't surprised to hear that Smith is tangled in another tree-clearing incident.

"Hell, about the first thing that happened was they took the bulldozers and cleared the trees," said York County Councilman Rick Lee, who was then on the county zoning board.

The dispute at Lowe's Motor Speedway centers on trees torn down between a parking lot and road. Charlotte officials say the speedway agreed to protect the trees in return for the city's approval of a zoning change that enabled the track to build a parking lot.

When city officials realized the trees had been cleared, a name-calling feud between Smith and city officials erupted. The disputing parties plan to meet Monday to discuss possible penalties and corrective action, including a plan to potentially replant trees.

The meeting, which was originally planned for Friday, was postponed at the request of Speedway officials so that Smith could attend, said Assistant City Manager Ron Kimble.

"We do that in a spirit of sharing what we feel are the appropriate remedies in a face-to-face sitting," Kimble said.

Auto dealerships often want trees removed because they block views of their merchandise and cause clean-up issues, planners said.

Charlotte-based Sonic, which runs 195 dealerships in 15 states, is one the biggest companies in the Carolinas, reporting profits of $71.6 million on sales of $7 billion last year. Smith is the chairman and chief executive of Sonic and Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Smith said he was not involved in a dispute on the Fort Mill Ford site that York County officials say was a heated battle for more than a year.

"I know nothing about it," Smith said. "I think someone is making up a story or something."

Smith's signature appears on several documents in the county's file, including a letter dated Jan. 10, 2001, that agrees to restore the property to its "preconstruction" appearance and promises not to remove more trees.

County officials had given permission in April 1999 for some trees near the site of the future Fort Mill Ford dealership to be cut on a sliver of land between the property and the highway so the lot would be more visible to customers. But the agreement called for some trees to remain.

Within months, county officials couldn't believe what they saw.

"They kept making commitments to us to work with us on the buffer issue but they kept violating ... we eventually said maybe we won't allow you to open the car lot," said Eric Greenway, director of York County planning and former zoning administrator. "Many of the agreements that I had with both the on-site contractor and the project manager with Sonic Automotive were not upheld."

The Charlotte-based office of Choate Construction Company, a national contractor that lists Sonic as a client on its Web site, was assigned to the site and named in county documents. John Dudas, a senior project manager out of Choate's Charlotte office, said his company "was not directly involved with the removal of the trees. There was another contractor on site not under our control or under contract with us."

A timeline in county zoning files shows that tree removal violations occurred on April 30 and Oct. 16, 2000. Both times the company stopped its clearing actions when confronted and then began cutting trees and moving dirt that was supposed to be left untouched.

"It was so blatant and in your face," said Carl Gullick, then chair of the York County Council. "I don't see how there could have been any mistake."

County officials eventually refused to let the company occupy the building until it submitted a $110,113 bond. The money was held by the county until the company replanted trees and other vegetation. The company landscaped the grounds and planted trees which are now growing along the highway.

"It's not as nice as it would have been had the original trees had been left, but what's there is going to grow," Lee said.