The Warren Select Board voted to reject the town’s proposed land use and development regulations (LUDRs), this week, tabling approval for the duration of this construction season. The board will continue its review of the draft regulations and re-warn the LUDRs for public hearing in November.
At its April 12, 2023, meeting the select board moved to reject the proposed LUDRs as a formality and continue editing the document once the planning commission returns it to the select board, to be warned by the select board on November 1, 2023. The motion passed, so all permits submitted before that hearing is warned will be considered under the former (and now once again current) LUDRs. This comes after the select board has held several public meetings on the proposed LUDRs since February 2023, following the planning commission’s extensive work on the draft.
Local attorney Sheila Getzinger spoke at the select board’s regular April 11 meeting then again at the select board’s April 12 work session on the LUDRs, imploring the select board to reject the proposed LUDRs for the duration of construction season so that projects may move forward as permitted under the current regulations without concerns that the new regulations may go into effect in the interim and impact the permits.
“Nobody can get a permit that they can rely on. I wonder if you would consider rejecting the proposed zoning ordinances, if you reject now, revise and re-warn in the fall,” she said on April 11. “My complaint is simply that we don’t know what regulations we’re working under and that is creating a problem,” she added at the April 12 meeting.” She noted that the building season in Vermont is short and that projects may be held up by the potential discrepancy in regulations.
“You can reject, make your edits and give it back to the planning commission but they can then make changes,” Robbins said, noting there would then need to be another planning commission public hearing.
“It releases (the LUDRs) from the select board’s control and we free up construction season,” select board chair Luke Youmell said. “If we’re going to severely impact construction season, then we should consider rejecting.”
“The 150-day time period that started when the select board warned their public hearing on January 5, 2023, and ends June 14, 2023, is merely the time period during which any applications submitted are reviewed under the proposed regulations. Should the select board not act on adopting or rejecting the proposed regulations then the review process that utilizes the proposed LUDRs “sunsets” and all applications going forward after June 14 are reviewed under our adopted regulations. The SB can then continue to review and make changes as they see fit until they are ready to present a revised final draft to the public in a final public hearing and subsequent adoption,” zoning administrator/planning coordinator
Ruth Robbins wrote in an email.
“Part of the problem here is there’s a 150-day time frame,” attorney Brooke Dingledine said at the April 12 meeting. “Typically, there’s a hearing or two and you guys have been delving into some very complicated and serious issues. I think typically, in a normal scenario, it’s contemplated for a shorter time frame where you’re not making all those changes . . . That 150-day clock is in there to ensure that people don’t get held up for inordinate amounts of time. So, at the select board you can continue to work on it but it has no longer caught anyone in the interim phase so they have to worry about both versions” (of the LUDRs).
In January, at the urging of Warren Residents for Responsible Cell Tower Siting amidst concerns about a potential cell tower project, the Warren Select Board warned the first of several public hearings to date on the planning commission’s proposed new land use and development regulations (LUDRs). The select board intends to continue its review of the draft as the planning commission has the opportunity to make any amendments then warn it for public hearing in November.
