The select board, at its November 30 meeting, continued its discussion of the proposed amendments and ultimately approved them as proposed by the planning commission.
The proposed zoning eliminates the current commercial lodging district and replaces it with an adaptive redevelopment overlay district while rezoning all land in the former commercial lodging district to ag/res.
OVERLAY DISTRICT
Select board members queried planning commission chair Steve Shea as well as planner Sharon Stone about why the overlay district was only planned for properties south of Irasville. Shea said that revising the commercial lodging district (which is only located south of Irasville between Waitsfield and Warren) had long been on the planning commission's to-do list. Stone explained that the planning commission had a mandate to address that issue because it is spelled out in the Town Plan.
Select board member Bill Parker said how these changes could avoid being considered spot zoning, as they apply to only four properties. He asked why the overlay district could not be expanded to include the Bundy parcel, for example, where he said some sort of school akin to Yestermorrow could be developed.
Shea and Stone and former planning commissioner Robin Morris explained that the proposed changes were designed to allow for the adaptive reuse of former lodges, to allow businesses and organizations that currently exist to expand within a set of guidelines that protect the surrounding ag/res properties and don't counter the town's zoning ordinance and Town Plan which call for keeping retail operations in the designated Irasville/Waitsfield Village area.
NORTH OF WAITSFIELD
Board member Paul Hartshorn said he felt the planning commission should look at applying similar amendments to the ag/res land north of Waitsfield Village where he said several properties would be coming up for some changes soon.
Shea assured the board that the planning commission would be willing to look at that area of town but had to first finish the commercial lodging rewrite. Brian Shupe, chair of the town development review board but commenting only as a citizen, reminded the board that the farms and agricultural uses north of Waitsfield Village are the visual entrance to the town and an area where open land has been preserved. That land, he said, may not be as appropriate for adaptive reuse as the commercial lodging district.
The proposed zoning applies to four properties south of Route 17 between Waitsfield and Warren. Those properties are the former Egan's (Mad Bush Lodge), the Featherbed Inn, the Lareau Farm and Yestermorrow.
The planning commission has been working on rezoning for the commercial lodging district since last year and has come up with changes that allow property owners in the district to expand existing uses and/or amend existing permits.
The stated purpose of the adaptive redevelopment overlay district is "to allow for the adaptive redevelopment of former commercial lodging establishments along Route 100 in a manner that promotes and exemplifies principles of sustainable development and design, while also maintaining the rural and scenic character of the Route 100 corridor," according to the planning commission documents.
FORMER COMMERCIAL LODGING FACILITIES
As proposed, the provisions of the new district may apply only to former commercial lodging (hotel or inn) properties that were established prior to January 1, 1980. They must have footage on Route 100, include 15 or more acres and be proposed for redevelopment as a planned unit development, according to a masterplan approved by the town development review board.
Currently, properties in the commercial lodging district are limited in how they can be expanded or modified. American Flatbread and Yestermorrow are two such businesses where expansion and permit modification have not been an issue in the current commercial lodging district. Both enterprises have grown from an inn or lodge to larger uses.
If the zoning passes, all other existing properties and uses in the former commercial lodging district that are permitted would continue within the ag/res district, but any proposed changes or modifications will have to meet the requirements of the ag/res district.
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