News

Springfield sends zoning, energy amendments back to respective committees

By JEFF EPSTEIN
[email protected]
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — The select board conducted two public hearings on March 25. One was about proposed changes to town zoning regulations, and the other was for a proposed energy plan for the town.

The zoning hearing came first. The proposed amendments were in a lengthy document that covered many different technical subjects that included allowed land uses, setbacks, architectural features, demolitions, and signs, and changes to some definitions.

The board had some questions regarding different terminology in different sections of the proposed amendments that were apparently confusing.

“It certainly makes the select board’s strategic plan of revitalizing the downtown far more difficult with these additional regulations,” said Town Manager Tom Yennerell. “We’re trying to promote private investment in the downtown, and this is going to make it much more difficult to make people want to invest.”

The select board did not approve or vote down the zoning amendments at this time, but provided feedback to the planning commission to refine the amendments. The board voted unanimously to return the zoning amendments to the planning commission for revision.

In discussion over proposed amendments to the town energy plan, energy committee members Char Osterlund, Melissa Mackenzie and Hallie Whitcomb addressed questions from the select board and the audience. 

One person in the audience said she thought that solar panels would not have negative impacts on the quality of the soil, and may have beneficial effects.

Selectman George McNaughton expressed concern that the energy plan not interfere with downtown development projects or plans to bring in new businesses. In an earlier energy plan, he said, “the earlier energy committee had complained to the state that energy conservation reduction caps were going to adversely affect Springfield because the type of industry that we were trying to recruit, such as the BRIC program and the Park Street School … were going to be high-tech,” he said.

A computer server farm, for example, could have high energy consumption. So a regulation that sought energy caps without reference to solar and wind or other renewable energy could wind up hurting Springfield, he said.

The intention of energy conservation goals was efficiency, not placing a restriction on energy use, Osterlund responded. She agreed with a suggestion McNaughton made that the energy plan goals include a statement to the effect that conservation goals should not be interpreted as caps that disallow high energy consumption by industry.

On the subject of hydropower, the energy committee did not place as much emphasis on this as in a previous version of the energy plan, because it is not a state requirement, and it seems impractical to construct new hydroelectric dams where they do not already exist, and doing so may have negative impacts on fish, Osterlund said.

The select board decided 4-1, Martone voting against the motion, to return the energy plan to the planning commission for further refinement.

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