NEWPORT — Every seat and windowsill was full in the lakeside banquet room, where lawmakers and state officials held the first of five public hearings to discuss shoreline development Friday.
Ten senators and representatives and several Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) staff make up the Lake Shoreland Protection Commission, which is the product of a law passed in May. That legislation was hatched last-minute after another bill, H.526, which would have regulated shoreline development, ran into a roadblock in the Senate.
H.526 backers hope that they can reduce resistance to the bill — which stems from concerns about ceding private property rights — by visiting communities, seeking their input, and making a case for regulation. H.526 passed in the House, and Sen. Robert Hartwell, D-Bennington, chair of the Natural Resources Committee, plans to resurrect the bill in the Senate once the Legislature reconvenes in January.
The commission’s first stop was a part of the Northeast Kingdom peppered with lakes — fittingly, it gave its presentation on the shore of Lake Memphremagog, at the East Side Restaurant in Newport.
Officials took care to acknowledge the views of those who oppose the legislation.
“Living on a lake is very personal. It’s your little piece of heaven,” said Susan Warren, the section chief of lakes and ponds division of the Department of Environmental Conservation. “And when we come in and suggest management strategies, I understand that’s a hard thing to hear.”
But, they didn’t beat around the bush, telling the crowd that the state urgently needs to start regulating its shoreline development. Vermont, which is home to 812 lakes and ponds, is the only New England state without statewide standards. One in five towns have developed their own rules, but they vary greatly in stringency, according to ANR officials.
H.526 would require permits for certain construction projects if they take place within 250 feet of a shoreline in an effort to preserve vegetation, which, in turn, protects water quality and habitats.
After a narrated PowerPoint presentation, punctuated by gull cries, the panel turned to the packed room of residents.
The question-and-answer period was tightly regulated — residents wrote questions on cards and submitted them to a moderator who read them aloud for the panel to answer. At several points, audience members, dissatisfied with the responses, appeared frustrated with the format, which prevented them from speaking.
The subtext of many of the questions was, why is this priority? One asked why lawmakers weren’t stepping up regulations on boats, which can spread invasive species from lake to lake. Another asked if there was any legislative effort afoot to restrict cows and other livestock from grazing on lakeshore pasture land.
“We are not losing sight of other problems,” responded Rep. David Deen, D-Putney, who chairs the House Fish & Wildlife Committee. “This is our legislative attempt, though, to address shorelines.”
Other questions were clearly getting at a particular property arrangement, with the owners trying to ascertain whether their H.526 would limit their ability to build.
Sen. Diane Snelling, R-Chittenden, and other lawmakers shied away from answering several of those questions directly, because, she explained, the exact contents of the bill are still up in the air.
Some questions — why it’s taken the Legislature so long to get to this point, for instance — clearly came from people who support the effort.
There was particular concern among the crowd for the property owners of small plots. Residents wanted to know how much permits would cost and how the Agency of Natural Resources would enforce the regulations. Neither question has been resolved yet, officials replied.
Lawmakers also sought to allay concerns that the regulations would reduce property value. “There’s no evidence we’ve seen that this reduces property value,” Hartwell said. The opposite could be true, he added, with degraded water drawing down land value.
Sen. John Rodgers, D-Orleans, who represents Newport in the Statehouse, was the uncontested celebrity of the event. Rodgers, who mentioned that he has been skeptical of “mitigation” efforts, was cheered on several times.
The atmosphere was testy at times — Lake Willoughby residents voiced their ire over one particular residence — but there were also more lighthearted moments. When a commission member asked that their glasses of water be replenished, someone in the crowd shouted, “Take a bucket out to the lake.”
The remaining hearings are scheduled to take place on Lake Bomoseen; on Lake Morey in Fairlee; in Middlebury; and in Burlington.
Correction: Sen. Diane Snelling is a Republican.
