The Fayston Development Review Board turned down four requests to reconsider its decision granting True North Wilderness Program a conditional use permit at a well-attended meeting last week.
On November 8, the board deliberated behind closed doors briefly before returning to open session to move and then vote unanimously in opposition to requests for consideration from the applicants, two abutters and the Fayston Citizens Group.
True North is a wilderness therapy program with the status of a school in Vermont. The company is seeking state and local permits for a residential therapy program that will have up to 42 students and14 counselors camping on the ground and in yurts on 12 permanent campsites on the 650-acre Lathrop parcel in Fayston 12 months of the year. True North works with teenagers and young adults. The DRB issued a permit this fall that limits the number of permanent campsites, among other conditions.
That permit has been appealed by True North, abutters and the Citizens Group. The fact that the permit is under appeal was an argument raised at the November 8 meeting by project opponents. They argued that a local permit under appeal to the Vermont Environmental Court is heard de novo and hence local consideration of the project could not recommence.
A public recreation easement runs with that parcel that allows hunting and trapping in season. Adjoiners to the project and the Fayston Citizens Group asked that, if the DRB re-opened the hearings, that the board consider whether federal and state regulations that prohibit firearms on school grounds create a conflict for True North on the issue of hunters and a school co-existing on this parcel.
True North has argued that it could avoid the firearms and school grounds conflict by creating a public hunting program. At last week’s hearing, Jared Margolis, attorney for the Fayston Citizens Group, offered additional comments regarding the Gun-Free School Zones legislation and pointed out that Vermont residential treatment programs do not allow guns at all.
True North attorney Rebecca Boucher noted that True North has been granted a waiver regarding this provision. Brenda Dawson, a social worker for the Vermont Department of Children and Families, acknowledged via email that such a waiver had been granted and Jim Forbes, director of residential licensing and special investigations for the Vermont Department of Children and Families, said the waiver information would be made public when it had been cleared by the state’s legal counsel.
True North is concurrently involved in Act 250 hearings for the Fayston project as well as for a project in Waitsfield.
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