People on the Move City of Rutland Development Review Board
Lawmakers in the Vermont House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to support a beak aimed at making Act 250 — the state's sweeping land use and development law — more accessible.
"Act 250 was designed to be a locally centered process, close to the people, and then that they would know that their voice was being heard. Nosotros have moved away from that process," said Rep. Seth Bongartz, D-Manchester, a fellow member of the House Commission on Natural Resource, Fish and Wildlife who spoke about the bill on the House floor.
If passed, H.492 would reform the structure of the Natural Resources Board, which oversees Act 250.
The police force, enacted in 1970 to control development in Vermont, requires qualifying commercial and industrial developments to obtain a permit. Those who oversee Deed 250 scrutinize projects nether its jurisdiction using x points of criteria.
When it was passed, Human action 250 was administered by nine district commissions and a torso that heard appeals from those district commissions, called the "ecology board," which had ix members — a full-time chair and eight denizen members. When hearing appeals, the lath would travel to the boondocks where the instance was located to brand a site visit and, "every bit important, for the convenience of those involved in the process," Bongartz said.
Over fourth dimension, he told lawmakers on the floor, the process has become more legally involved, and it became harder for the 8 people on the board — many of whom had other jobs — to shoulder the workload and properly gear up for hearings.
In 2004, the Legislature moved the appeal process to Vermont'due south Environmental Court, under the supposition that a judge could best assess the legal matters at hand.
"Madam Speaker, your Committee on Natural Resources, Fish and Wild fauna has reached the conclusion that this change swung the pendulum likewise far in the other direction," Bongartz said Tuesday.
The alter had a number of unintended consequences, he said. The court setting of appeals, for example, has made the process less accessible and more expensive.
Instead, the bill proposes establishing a professional board, which would again assume the name "Environmental Review Board" instead of "Natural Resources Board." It would be made up of a total-time chair and four part-time members, and information technology would oversee the Human action 250 appeals process.
"Past professionalizing the lath, we make information technology possible to build a body of knowledge about the problems in the process," Bongartz told lawmakers.
Alongside the governor, a new seven-fellow member nominating committee would choose Environmental Review Board members. Board members would serve 5-year terms.
"The governor shall ensure board membership shall reflect, to the extent possible, the racial, indigenous, gender, and geographic variety of the state," the pecker says. "The board shall not contain two members who reside in the same county."
Bongartz said that, at the start of the biennium, Gov. Phil Scott asked the Legislature to professionalize the Natural Resources Board, calling for board members with "experience and depth of knowledge." That'southward what this bill does, Bongartz said.
"With the board hearing appeals, nosotros motility from the hyper-legalistic setting and processes of Environmental Court — with a judge in a robe on a bench — to the more breezy setting and processes of the Ecology Review Board, sitting at a table in the local Grange Hall," he said.
Some lawmakers who dissented on the House floor Tuesday said the changes were not significant enough to address bug caused by the Act 250 process.
Rep. Pattie McCoy, R-Poultney, said she could not "support a bill that does naught but movement the deck chairs."
"Major changes to Act 250 are required if we are to move our state forward and modernize how nosotros welcome and invite businesses to move here in an economic style without rules, regulations and permitting processes that take up of ii years to get through," she said.
Another nib, S.234, which is currently making its way through the Senate, proposes a unlike set of changes to Act 250.
Bongartz said the Business firm bill would result in fundamental alter and address emerging problems in the state that are best addressed by a professional lath responsible for shaping the implementation of the constabulary.
"Housing, development in downtowns, forest fragmentation, a changing climate need to be thought through and well implemented past a easily-on board rather than an adrift entity without whatsoever function in shaping these important, substantive challenges," he said.
Jon Groveman, policy and water program director for the Vermont Natural Resources Quango, an organization that worked to implement Act 250 decades ago, applauded the House members' support of the nib.
"H.492 is a linchpin to creating a stronger Deed 250 program at a time when Vermont needs it virtually," he said in a statement. "A robust Act 250 program led by an expert, independent board volition be fundamental to addressing environmental challenges similar climate change and the influx of people it will bring to Vermont."
The bill will be read a concluding time on the House floor and, if canonical, volition head to the Senate.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misrendered role of a quotation from Rep. Seth Bongartz. He called the Environmental Courtroom a "hyper-legalistic setting."
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Source: https://vtdigger.org/2022/03/22/house-backs-bill-to-restructure-board-that-oversees-act-250/
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