Putting The Planners In Charge

The Reformer has a story about a proposed winery in Halifax, VT that’s having a tough time with its Act 250 application. As a result of the regional commission’s development-hostile stance, town clerk Laura Sumner suggests the town may permanently break with the commission.  Antagonism between developers and regional commissions isn’t surprising. The interesting part is the town clerk’s threat to ‘break’ from the commission. Reader feedback on my fist draft of this post has convinced me there probably isn't much to this threat. Nonetheless, its fun and interesting to speculate the possibilities. One way for the the town to achieve greater autonomy would be for them to conduct the local ACT 250 review hearings themselves. Vermont’s Municipal Administrative Procedure Act. (MAPA) specifically allows for local communities to conduct Act 250 hearings if they adopt the rules of procedure defined in the Act.

Of course, whether a town chooses to use MAPA or not doesn’t really merit discussion here at VT Tiger. A better question is how and why MAPA contains these provisions to begin with and why do so few towns know about or use them. The provision has the ability to shift more regulatory control back to the local governments, a very progressive idea. (Note, I mean progressive as in classic liberal, not Vermont Progressive Party).  Still,  I somehow find it hard to believe the folks in Montpelier really wanted to give away their authority.  So, how did the provision get into the Act?

I have a suspicion the MAPA provisions may be related to Act 115 (2004) which requires all local ordinances to be in conformity with the town plan. Giving legal force and effect to the town plan makes the plan more important and influential than the executive branch of the municipal government, the select board.  Now, consider that the provisions of the MAPA discussed above specifically allow for town planning commissions to hold Act 250 hearings which is an exercise in interpreting the intent of the town plan, also written by the planning commissions.

So, the town planning commissions writes the plans and gets to hold quasi-judicial Act 250 hearings to interpret the plans and the plan preempts town ordinances. Hum? Is somebody trying to put the planners in charge? I can’t help but wonder what life will be like when Vermont is ruled by the planners.

 

Of course, whether a town chooses to use MAPA or not doesn’t really merit discussion here at VT Tiger. A better question is how and why MAPA contains these provisions to begin with and why do so few towns know about or use them. The provision has the ability to shift more regulatory control back to the local governments, a very progressive idea. (Note, I mean progressive as in classic liberal, not Vermont Progressive Party).  Still,  I somehow find it hard to believe the folks in Montpelier really wanted to give away their authority.  So, how did the provision get into the Act?

I have a suspicion the MAPA provisions may be related to Act 115 (2004) which requires all local ordinances to be in conformity with the town plan. Giving legal force and effect to the town plan makes the plan more important and influential than the executive branch of the municipal government, the select board.  Now, consider that the provisions of the MAPA discussed above specifically allow for town planning commissions to hold Act 250 hearings which is an exercise in interpreting the intent of the town plan, also written by the planning commissions.

So, the town planning commissions writes the plans and gets to hold quasi-judicial Act 250 hearings to interpret the plans and the plan preempts town ordinances. Hum? Is somebody trying to put the planners in charge? I can’t help but wonder what life will be like when Vermont is ruled by the planners.

Comments

[Anonymous]

I enjoy your posts and agree with many of them, but with respect to this one, I think you're understanding of Act 250 is incorrect.

RE, your statement:

"With all the hostility between regional commissions and individual towns, it’s a wonder more towns haven’t chosen this path."

Do you think that RPCs conduct Act 250 hearings? They don't. Hearings are conducted by district environmental commissions. RPCs have no control over Act 250 decisions - they can only offer testimony.

Also, under state law, whenver the provisions of a municipal plan conflict with the provisions of a regional plan, the provisions of the local plan prevail.

[Greg Decker]

Your correct in the your description of how 250 hearings are conducted - the key issue being the recommendations the WRC gave at the hearing not that the WRC was holding the hearings. However, the issue I’m trying to address in the post is the intent of the town in saying they want to ‘break’ from the WRC. While it’s possible they simply meant they’ll no longer submit their town plan for regional approval which carries its own set of consequences. I think it’s more likely they’re taking about something else. While I have no real evidence to support my argument because the Reformer chose to not probe for more information I’m speculating the town may be considering adopting the MAPA. The reason being is that whoever conducts the hearing gets to write the decision and writing decisions entails interpreting the intent of the plans. The town would therefore be the ones deciding if and how the plans conflict. Of course, I’m probably wrong but until the folks doing the first hand journalism do a better job second hand speculators like me will be left to guessing.