New zoning regs up for vote Tuesday in East Montpelier
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By Peter Hirschfeld Vermont Press Bureau - Published: January 5, 2009
EAST MONTPELIER – Residents here will have the final say Tuesday on a new set of land-use regulations drafted by one government body and rejected by another.
In early November, the East Montpelier Selectboard voted by a 3-2 margin to reject a new version of zoning and subdivision regulations crafted by the town planning commission.
The planning commission later petitioned to put the regulations up for a town-wide referendum anyway. The special vote takes place Tuesday.
"I think the planning commission was surprised at the selectboard's decision, since we thought we'd been working in accordance with what they wanted us to do," said Rick Hopkins, chair of the East Montpelier Planning Commission. "So when they voted against it, we sort of circled the wagons, got a petition together … and ended up with a special vote on Jan. 6."
Hopkins said the document represents a nearly five-year effort by the planning commission. The new regulations, according to Hopkins, would consolidate and modernize zoning regulations adopted in 1982 and subdivision rules written in 1974.
"This has been a multi-year process that began in 2003 when the East Montpelier Planning Commission realized that the zoning and subdivision regulations were really out of date," Hopkins said.
Hopkins said that in addition to being old, the existing rules are also unclear and not in accordance with state law. The new regulations, he said, were written with the help of a grant-funded consultant.
Hopkins said the new regulations are not any more or less restrictive than the old rules, but simply clarify and update the old statutes.
"They clarify what you can do, whereas the existing regulations have a lot of ambiguity," he said.
Steve Jerome is chairman of the East Montpelier Selectboard and one of three board members to have voted against the new rules. Jerome said he's not against zoning, but that he thinks the proposed regulations are too long and confusing.
"I had this concern a long time ago when I first read them," Jerome said. "I've read them three times now, and kept finding again and again that I didn't know what I could and couldn't do under these rules."
Jerome said that for the small community of East Montpelier, the regulations seem excessive.
"What really bothers me is that I've given them to other people to read, and they find them extremely difficult to understand," Jerome said.
But Bruce Johnson, who serves as zoning administrator in East Montpelier, said he supports the adoption of the planning commission's new regulations. As per state statute, the new rules have been in place since public hearings on the proposed regulations were warned early last year in East Montpelier.
"We're been evaluating every application under both sets of regulations, and we haven't had any problems with the new regulations at all over the past eight months we've been using them," Johnson said.
Johnson said the town would benefit by adopting new regulations that reflect advances in zoning and subdivision practices since the existing laws were crafted decades ago.
"If nothing else, these new regulations have modern language," he said. "They ask and answer questions that have been developed over the 40 years Vermont has had zoning, and I think it better serves the community to have a modern document rather than one that relies on the language of the early days of zoning in Vermont."
Hopkins said public hearings held on the new regulations allowed the planning commission to tweak the rules based on concerns voiced by residents.
"We had a number of public hearings, and there were a good number of people that came out and offered comments," Hopkins said. "We were able to work with those residents and I think satisfy their concerns. We didn't hear from any large number of people that rose up and said 'proceed no further.'"
The proposed rules include a groundwater extraction provision intended to codify a Town Meeting Day referendum approved by voters here last year. Otherwise, according to Hopkins, the rules for the most part maintain the status quo in the town.
"I really don't see any major departures other than just more clearly stating what it is that's required," Hopkins said. "… What we've really tried to accomplish here is just make things more clear."
Jerome said he thinks it's appropriate for town residents to have final say on the regulations. He said the community-wide referendum is the fairest way to accept or reject the planning commission's proposal.
"I think it's the right thing this is going to the town," Jerome said. "Because they're the one who ought to be making the decision on something like this anyway – not the selectboard."
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