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ABOUT THE CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE & THE ZONING UPDATE
The
current Ferrisburgh
zoning bylaws were adopted in 1988 and amended in 2001, and the current
subdivision regulations were adopted in 1980. The Ferrisburgh
Town Plan was updated in 2006, and an effort was made in 2007 to update
the zoning bylaws and subdivision regulations to incorporate the new town plan and 2004
changes to state law (known as Act 115). A
preliminary draft of the new land use regulations (combining zoning and
subdivisions) encountered vocal opposition, and the update was
abandoned.
A December 2008 zoning
application to construct a truck stop and fast-food restaurant in the town
center increased public awareness of zoning issues and led many townspeople to
realize the importance of incorporating the vision of the town plan into the
zoning bylaws. In addition, the window
for conforming local bylaws to Act 115 closes in 2011, at which point
state law will override any non-conforming local bylaws.
In February 2009, a
group of concerned citizens urged the Planning Commission to restart the zoning
update process and offered their help to the commission. The commission agreed to a restart, and the
first warned meeting on the zoning and subdivision rewrite was held in March 2009. More than 25 members of the public attended,
and the event was even written up in the Addison Independent! Fifteen citizens, representing a number of
different interests, formally volunteered to help and the Citizens Advisory
Committee was born. The Planning Commission
felt the citizen's group should be independent of the commission (i.e., not an
"official" town group), but welcomed their assistance in an advisory
role. It was agreed that that the Advisory
Committee's mission would be to reach out to a broad range of interests within
the town to help build bipartisan support for the zoning and subdivision rewrite. To be successful, the Advisory Committee
needs to include townspeople with a variety of interests related to land use
issues.
The process of drafting revised zoning and subdivision regulations is
expected to stretch out over a year or more, and the commission would like to tackle one
"topic" at a time. They plan
to charge the Advisory Committee each month with a particular topic to review;
the committee will then reach out to diverse interests within the town for
feedback, and report back at the following month's Planning Commission meeting. In the interests of keeping the Planning
Commission meetings to a reasonable length, the commission requested that a
single spokesperson speak each month on behalf of the Advisory Committee. The Planning Commission meetings are open
to the public and all are welcome to attend.
The Planning
Commission
is using the current zoning bylaws as the starting point for the
update. However, the abandonned 6/19/07 DRAFT Ferrisburgh
Land Use Regulations serves as a valuable reference for the update
process. While that draft was
controversial at the time, it contains sample
language for updates to conform to the town plan, mandatory updates required by
changes to state law, optional updates permitted by changes to state law, and
improved organization.
At the April 2009
Planning Commission meeting the commission tackled their first topic, compliance
with Act 115, and charged the Advisory Committee with reviewing the number of
zoning districts for the May meeting. It
is anticipated that zoning district boundaries will be reviewed next, once the
number of districts have been settled. The
agenda for future topics remains to be determined by the Planning Commission.
Summary by Katie Hill,
4/26/09
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