Kudos to Senator Ginny Lyons (D-Chittenden) for striking yet another blow against developer-driven sprawl! As reported in today’s Free Press, Sen. Lyons yesterday disclosed the contents of a 49-page bill that proposes to restructure the Act 250 permit process, eliminating the role of the Agency of Natural Resources in that process, and effectively “streamlining” it for speed, cost-efficiency and effectiveness.
This bill represents the first attempt in decades to do something definitive about the permit process…It is time to focus on better protecting our natural resources and to achieving our goals of concentrated development surrounded by a working landscape. – Sen. Lyons
Sen. Lyons’ bill would seem to be the streamlining rewrite of Act 250 that Gov. Douglas has been whining for since he first took office; but, no. When contacted by the Free Press for comment, his spokesperson, Denise Casey apparently expressed concern with
…any permit reform led by the Democratic supermajority…
and added that
These environmental organizations are impossible to please.
Oh, dear; those “environmental organizations” she refers to must be the same ones that routinely draw attention to the decline in the water quality of Lake Champlain since the Douglas administration came to power.
Undaunted by evidence to the contrary, according to the Free Press, Casey still chose to
defend(ed) the governor’s environmental record citing his focus on programs to reduce pollution of Lake Champlain.
Go figure?
Vermont’s current permit process governing land-use is a multi-tiered system, requiring that a project be reviewed and approved at the local level; obtain permits addressing environmental and other concerns from divisions of the VT. Dept. of Environmental Conservation; and then, once all those permits have been issued, if the scale and potential impact of the project are great enough, undergo yet another level of review under Act 250.
As itemized in the Free Press article, the effect of Sen. Lyon’s proposal would be to:
.Abolish the Agency of Natural Resources, the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Environmental Court and the Natural Resources Board.
.Replace them with a Department of Environmental Quality headed by a full-time, five-person Environmental Council. The departments of Fish and Wildlife, and Forest and Parks, would become freestanding departments.
.Send all environmental appeals to the new Environmental Council.
.Consolidate all state environmental permits into the Act 250 development review process.
.Broaden the categories of persons who may take part in contested permit cases.
.Allow appeals of growth-center designations and aspects of municipal and regional plans.
The last two items are of special interest to me. As a member of the Northwest Citizens for Responsible Growth, I have first-hand experience of how difficult it is to secure a voice in the current permit process. We have devoted thousands of hours of amateur effort and received an even greater number of hours in contributed professional assistance through the efforts of the Vermont Natural Resources Council and Preservation Trust of Vermont, just so that our significant concerns about a proposed Walmart box store in St. Albans could be presented within the Act 250 review process. Why should it be so arduous for citizens to participate in shaping their own communities?
It is to be hoped that uncoupling the state permitting process from a system that lends itself to politicization will better serve the interests of the people, both in terms of efficiency and upholding the true intent of Act 250 which is to preserve our environmental heritage. While this bill is not expected to come to the floor in the 2010 session, it is encouraging to hear that the important work has begun.