In February, the District 5 Environmental Commission issued a proposed permit for True North Wilderness Program, without holding public hearings to review the project under the 10 regular Act 250 review criteria.
Requests for full Act 250 hearings for True North Wilderness Program were submitted to the District 5 Environmental Commission by adjoining landowners Russ Chalom and Kinny Perot. The Agency of Natural Resources Fish and Wildlife Department filed comments as well.
The District 5 Environmental Commission is giving project applicants until April 11 to file their responses to Perot’s request for a full hearing.
True North Wilderness Program (TNWP), Waitsfield, is seeking a state Act 250 permit for the wilderness therapy program it operates on land on Dana Hill Road and in the Howe Block of the Camel’s Hump State Forest.
True North is run by Madhuri Maves and her husband Tyler Maves. They operate their program on 25 acres of land owned by Madhuri Maves’ parents, Tom Barefoot and Joni Zweig. True North received a local permit last December.
That permit from the Waitsfield Development Review Board brought True North’s permitting up to date with its uses and was issued despite the objections of a neighbor with concerns about the impact of the program on the land and the water. The permit was issued with an ownership condition requiring that ownership of the land remain in the Barefoot/Zweig/Maves family to keep the permit valid.
In January, True North Wilderness filed a state Act 250 permitting application for the program, seeking permitting to construct two tent platforms, one yome and three composting toilets. The application was filed by Barefoot and Zweig, doing business as True North Wilderness and references an “adjacent Plum Creek B&B” that will be used to house participants in True North Wilderness and meditation retreats.
That application references a state wastewater permit calling for serving 14 True North campers and six staff members at any time, plus six overnight guests at the bed and breakfast, or 42 people at the bed and breakfast having one meal, or 84 people at the bed and breakfast with no meals served. The wastewater permit also notes that all True North and bed and breakfast/meditation retreat uses will be served by a drilled well on site.
When the Waitsfield DRB reviewed the project, the issue of Plum Creek being run as a bed and breakfast was not addressed, although reference was made to the camp being used for meditation retreats. There was no mention at the DRB hearings of a drilled well at Plum Creek.
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