The testimony comes from neighbors and abutters concerned about the impacts of the project as well as from the applicants. The testimony addresses issues about whether the wilderness therapy program (classified by the state of Vermont as a school) can or should be permitted in two separate districts within Fayston’s zoning ordinance, whether there will or will not be an impact on traffic, whether the project meets the town’s conditional use review standards, wildlife impacts and others.
The DRB continues its hearing on the proposal on July 12 at the Town Offices at 6 p.m. There are three other items on the board’s agenda before the True North hearing resumes.
This will be the board’s third hearing on the application. The applicant, True North Wilderness, is seeking permission to develop a wilderness therapy school for up to 42 teens and young adults, plus up to 14 counselors on a parcel of land known as the Lathrop parcel. It straddles two zoning districts, the soil and water conservation district and the rural residential district. The Lathrop parcel is subject to a permanent public recreational easement and it abuts the Phen Basin block of the Camel’s Hump State Forest and the Big Basin lands.
As proposed True North seeks to construct 12 permanent campsites, each with two yurts and a composting toilet. The campsites would be connected by existing and new trails.
Critical to the permitting hearings is the issue of whether the project can be characterized as both a school and an outdoor recreation facility. True North’s attorney Rebecca Boucher argues that True North’s wilderness therapy activities make it an appropriate and allowed use in Fayston’s soil and water conservation district, and that its designation as a school make its activities an allowable use in the rural residential. The recreational activities can be considered auxiliary uses to the primary school use as well, Boucher noted in her submittals to the DRB.
A group of concerned citizens that has formed Fayston Citizens Group also submitted testimony on the project. That testimony argues that if True North is considered a school, its activities must be considered school activities on all the lands where they operate (not just those activities in the rural residential district). The citizens group also argues that True North cannot be considered an outdoor recreational facility because the recreational components rely on the school components to exist.
The citizens also argue that Fayston’s zoning ordinance does not allow mixed uses on the Lathrop parcel and argue that creating 12 campsites in order to avoid using any one campsite more than 90 consecutive days is an attempt to shoehorn the project into the site.
Liz and John Levey, who own property adjacent to the Lathrop parcel, also submitted testimony to the DRB. They also question whether the town zoning allowed mixed use on the Lathrop parcel, noting that “mixed use is not listed as a permitted or conditional use in either the soil and water conservation district or rural residential district.”
The Leveys further challenge how True North has been presented as a school and outdoor recreational use. They argue that True North’s activities meet the town zoning ordinance definition of camp/refuge/retreat and as such is not an allowable use in the soil and water conservation district.
The DRB also received comment from forester David Wilcox of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. Wilcox reported that he visited True North’s operations in Waitsfield, where they camp on lands in the Howe Block of the Camel’s Hump State Park and found that True North was adhering to Vermont’s wilderness camping guidelines.
While local review of the project is continuing, state level review is ongoing in two towns. True North is in need of Act 250 permits for its operations in Waitsfield as well as for the proposed operations in Fayston.
A preliminary Act 250 hearing for the Fayston project was held June 23 and was dedicated to determining which parties/people would participate in review as statutory parties. A date for the continuation of that hearing has not yet been set.
Act 250 hearings for the Waitsfield operations get underway with a site visit on the parcel on July 19 at 6:15 p.m. and continue at the Waitsfield Elementary School at 7:30 p.m. that same night.
True North sought Act 250 permits this winter, asking that the permits be issued as a minor review, without a full review of the 10 Act 250 criteria.
Abutting landowners objected and raised issues about wildlife habitat, proximity to streams and wastewater. The Act 250 District 5 Environmental Commission ruled that the abutters had raised substantive issues and that a full hearing would be held.
{loadnavigation}
