Next week the Fayston Planning Commission will be discussing some of its zoning and land use regulations and definitions, including outdoor recreation and it’s easy to dismiss zoning hearings as boring but the reality is that while zoning is not the sexiest type of public hearing, it’s still important.
At the commission’s September 9 meeting (5:30 p.m. at the town office on North Fayston Road) commissioners will have a preliminary discussion about how private trails and paths can impact adjoiners and the environment.
Now, that may sound onerous -- why should my path to my pond be subject to zoning regulation and oversight by the town? And that’s a fair question but we know that what happens upstream always impacts things downstream – gravity being an immutable law of the universe.
What if – in walking to my pond every day, I cross an intermittent stream and change the course of its flow? That flow will likely have downstream consequences whether it is impacting neighbors’ culverts or flower beds or their own ponds.
As we work our way deeper into dealing with a changing climate one of the things we’ve learned is that we can improve our own outcomes and our own flood resiliency if we work to slow the flow of stormwater during extreme weather events.
Friends of the Mad River offers its Storm Smart services for free throughout the watershed with their trained staff visiting local homes and helping people identify ways to slow the flow of water downhill and downstream. That’s a good example of how/why what we do on our own property can positively impact adjoiners, and those downstream.
What happens high up on the hills is always going to impact everything down the hill. This is part of what the Community Recreation Visioning steering committees are working on as well, along with the concept that recreation trails belong many places, but they don’t belong everywhere.
For one of our towns to take a look at this is good policy and it’s a good idea.
