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Act 250 work continues at State House

By Keith Whitcomb Jr. [email protected]
MONTPELIER — The legislative committee working on Act 250 changes has decided, so far, to keep the district commissions, a move the Scott administration and an environmental group say would be hard for them to support.

House Rep. Chris Bates, D-Bennington, who sits on the House Committee on Natural Resources, Fish, and Wildlife, confirmed Thursday the committee has, at least for the time being, opted to leave the district commissions in place.

In early January, the Scott administration and the Vermont Natural Resources Council, proposed to the legislative committee changes to Act 250, the state’s signature land-use law, that, among other things, would replace the nine district environmental commissions that oversee Act 250 permit applications with a statewide Natural Resources Board of three permanent members, plus two members who would vary by region.

Jon Groveman, policy and water program director at Vermont Natural Resources Council, said in an interview Thursday that the council and the Scott administration worked to put together a proposal that would appeal to different viewpoints and would have the broad support necessary to become law. Changing how the district commissions work is a big piece of that, he said.

He expects the legislative committee will take more testimony on this in the coming weeks, which may change things. The bill has a long way to go yet. It’ll have to go before other House committees, and then to the Senate.

“It’ll really depend on what they do,” said Groveman.

He said the council isn’t in favor of the idea to make the district commissions more formal in their proceedings. With the way their members are chosen, how much support they get, and their paygrades, having them be quasi-judicial like the Public Utility Commission is would be a bad move, from the council’s perspective. “That would be a deal breaker for us,” he said.

Peter Walke, deputy secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources, echoed Groveman’s comments in an interview Thursday.

“We hope they will reconsider as they move forward,” said Walke.

There’s concern that the Scott administration and the Vermont Natural Resources Council’s proposal would hurt local control and public participation in the Act 250 process.

According to written testimony filed Wednesday by Karen Horn, director of public policy and advocacy at the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, the proposed change to the district commissions wouldn’t be an improvement.

“In many respects, the proposed amendments would further usurp local land use authority, turning the longstanding purpose of (Act 250), that planning be undertaken at the most local level possible, on its head,” she wrote.

Her testimony encouraged the committee to add “one municipal official with experience in land use law,” to the makeup of the proposed Natural Resources Board. According to the document, she favored the proposal to create permit exemptions for downtown and similarly designated areas.

Horn said in an email Friday that at its Jan. 16 meeting, the VLCT board endorsed the broad concept of a professional Act 250 board, and endorsed exempting downtowns and neighborhood areas.

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