This story by Chris Mays was published by the Brattleboro Reformer on Oct. 21, 2018.
[W]ILMINGTON — The Development Review Board denied the Hermitage Club’s request to extend a permit to build a hotel by Haystack Mountain, where it has operated a members-only ski resort.
“Since the granting of a one-year extension on Sept. 2, 2017, the applicant has not started planning for or substantially completed any development on the proposed hotel,” states the DRB decision issued Thursday. “Significant time has elapsed since the original decision, with significant changes at [Hermitage Inn Real Estate Holding Company] as well as in the zoning ordinance. It is consistent with Wilmington zoning regulations and practices that development not substantially completed in a timely fashion be subject to review.”
The DRB said Hermitage Club President Harper Sibley, the new registered agent for the project, was not familiar with the initial decision made in September 2015 to allow the construction of a 184,000-square-foot, 79-foot-tall, 83-unit hotel with seven duplexes. Plans had been approved locally in September 2015, then a one-year extension was granted in March, covering September 2017 to September 2018.
“There has been no hotel development effort by the current HIREHC management team,” the DRB wrote in its recent decision. Sibley “testified that he has not read decision … nor has action been taken by the HIREHC organization in support of hotel development.”
The DRB also wanted to allow for the fire department to weigh in again on an agreement that was meant to provide funding for a new ladder truck and a place to store it. The department “has requested an opportunity to reconsider the fire protection arrangements for the hotel,” the decision says. Zoning Administrator Craig Ohlson said the Hermitage will have to go through the permitting process again if it wants to construct the hotel. The company has 30 days from Thursday to appeal the decision.
The members-only ski resort at Haystack and several other Hermitage properties were foreclosed by mortgage holder Berkshire Bank in February, with other establishments closed down for business by the Vermont Department of Taxes the following month for lack of tax payments.
Financial struggles were cited by company officials during hearings for both extension requests. But Sibley, in his first appearance at a public meeting since taking the helm in August, called the hotel “an important piece of collateral” for a loan his group is seeking in attempts to reopen this winter season.
“All the parties of interest in the Hermitage Club realize that the hotel is an important part of our economic future because the business model of running any kind of resort or club on a four or five month winter season is simply not sustainable,” he told the DRB during an Oct. 1 hearing. “And proof of that is where the Hermitage is, which should be in better shape than other resorts because of our membership base and the income associated with that. In spite of that, it’s fallen under financial stress because of the huge amount of infrastructure associated with trying to run a ski resort.”
Sibley asked for a two-year extension in order to have enough time to secure Act 250 approval from the state. He said his group thought it would take more than 12 months to get that permit.
But with an Act 250 application not yet submitted, the DRB in its decision said, “significant time will elapse before before hotel development could feasibly commence, making it unreasonable to expect hotel development to be completed within the requested two-year time extension.”
Having a hotel open after the winter ski season, Sibley said, “allows you to extend the season into the spring and the summer and the fall by offering weddings, and groups and conferences using the facilities in the off season.”
“Although there are some lovely inns in the area,” he told the DRB, “there are not enough beds to generate the kind of business that we want to do.”
Sibley said the plan was to have about 120 employees at the hotel year-round and no longer hire foreign workers through a visa program. DRB Chairwoman Wendy Manners told Sibley the last decision said the project may no longer be in conformity with the current zoning ordinance’s provisions, including but not limited to height maximums and waiver provisions. One year was allotted “in consideration of good faith efforts by the Hermitage to develop the plan that was in conformity,” according to the decision.
“The board would like to first express to the applicant our unwavering support for the successful use of Haystack Mountain, consistent with the town plan and zoning ordinance, as a recreational resource and economic benefit for the town, for our residents and for HIREHC members,” the DRB’s latest decision says. “It is unprecedented to grant sequential extensions in the town of Wilmington. To do so would create a precedent of prolonged development times without re-review of projects that are not moving successfully toward substantial completion within approved timeframes.”
