The deal is a good one for the town of Moretown, which will receive $101,250 for the 81 acres plus $1,250 an acre, fair market value (in today's dollars), for the additional 35 acres, if that option is taken by the landfill. The town and school-owned land behind the school will be conserved in perpetuity; the landfill will be able to add at least one more cell.
Moretown receives $200,000 to $300,000 in tipping fees from the Moretown Landfill annually. That's not pocket change when one considers that the entire municipal budget for Moretown for 2007is $853,688. It makes sense for the town to ensure that this particular cash cow lives as long as is feasible without degradation of the environment and/or long term negative impacts.
Barring radical new technology, the landfill is a finite resource. The additional unanticipated $101,250 from the transfer of development rights on the 81 acres will help sustain future landfill cells and keep Moretown's coffers fuller longer.
In Waitsfield, voters will be asked to approve subdivision regulations that may well be the most thoroughly reviewed, vetted, rewritten, publicly discussed in the history of subdivision regulations and planning in The Valley.
Several years worth of work, hundreds of hours by planning commission members and hired planners, dozens of hours of work, comment and review by members of the community (including local land use attorneys) have gone into these new regulations.
The public has had multiple opportunities to comment on all facets of these regulations, and has done so. The regulations are a vast improvement over what the regulatory boards are working with now and deserve to be upheld.
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