Williston Observer 1-10-19

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JANUARY 10, 2019

WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985

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Slice of Catamount headed for brownfields program Land purchase awaits reopening of federal government By Jason Starr Observer staff

A gasoline tank found buried near Governor Chittenden Road has contaminated a fraction of an acre of soil and groundwater on land that is set to become the publicly owned Catamount Community Forest. The Town of Williston, which plans to purchase the 380-acre property later this year, enrolled the contaminated area this week in a Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) brownfields monitoring program and will take responsibility for ensuring the contamination subsides over time. The Vermont Land Trust, which will hold a conservation easement preserving the land as undeveloped, has excluded the roughly one-tenth-of-an-acre from the easement until soil and water tests show the contamination has dissipated. Enrolling the area in the brownfields program will place the cost of ongoing monitoring on the DEC and protect the town from any state enforcement should the contamination cause additional environmental degradation — unless it is caused by the town — according to an opinion the town obtained last week from its attorney, Robert Fletcher. The contamination was found to be between 3 and 8 feet underground. Shawn Donovan of the DEC said he does not expect the contamination to spread and that the risk of the public being impacted is low. The tank was originally discovered and removed by the current property owner, the McCullough family, in the fall of 2017. Groundwater monitoring wells were dug and tested in the spring and fall of 2018 to determine the extent of contamination. “An unknown volume of gas was leaked from the tank in the past,” Donovan said, adding that the tank was part of former agricultural operations on the property. The proposed purchase and sale agreement that will allow the town to acquire the property has been amended to reflect the town’s responsibility for ongoing remediation of the contamination.

OBSERVER PHOTO BY AL FREY

Changes to growth management bylaws under consideration by the Williston Selectboard would allow developments like Finney Crossing, pictured in December, to build out faster than currently allowed.

Loosening the reins on residential growth

Selectboard considers changes to Williston’s growth management system By Jason Starr Observer staff

Williston’s unique growth management system has helped pace the rate of residential growth since its implementation in 1990 in a measured way that doesn’t overwhelm the town’s infrastructure or services. But town planners are hoping to remedy some of the system’s unintended consequences, which have bedeviled developers, protracted construction impacts to neighbors and failed to produce meaningful affordable housing. The planning commission has developed a list of recommended changes to the system, which will be the subject of two upcoming public hearings in front of the selectboard. Each March, the development review see CATAMOUNT page 15 board hosts a competitive allocation meet-

ing, where it awards up to 80 residential units per year over a fixed, 10-year period. Each unit of allocation equates to a potential building permit. Projects are scored on criteria that include home design, affordability and energy efficiency. A majority of the available allocation is reserved for the designated “growth center” at Taft Corners. Smaller numbers are available in the sewer service area outside the growth center and in the rural areas of town. Planners now recommend quickening the pace of growth by allowing developers to build out their entire allocation without stopping for each year’s new allocation to kick, which happens at the beginning of each fiscal year in July — the middle of the construction season. The current system “creates an artificial waiting period for projects under construction to build their units,” explained Williston Planning and Zoning Director Matt Boulanger. Under the proposal, “once you start building, you can simply keep building until the project is com-

plete,” Boulanger said. Blackrock Construction Vice President of Development Ben Avery, who has worked within the constraints of the current system to amass enough allocation for phase one of the proposed Northridge development off Metcalf Drive, welcomes the change. He said it will allow phase two of the development to proceed more quickly, minimizing the time the 40-home neighborhood is under construction. The impacts of construction have been one of the concerns raised by residents of neighboring Southridge in opposing Northridge’s land-use permits. “It will dramatically reduce the impact to the surrounding communities from a construction perspective,” Avery said. “Instead of us being under construction for six years up there, we could cut that time in half. I don’t think anybody would complain about that. Everyone would prefer to have it take less time.” The quicker pace is also more aligned see GROWTH page 7

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