A potential state crackdown appears to have influenced the cancellation of a premier recreation event in Vermont for the second straight year.
The Circumburke Trail Challenge — a highly ranked, annual running and cycling race around Burke Mountain — had been slated for October.
But the Natural Resources Board told one trail network involved that officials wouldn’t waive the right to take action under Act 250, the state’s 1970 commercial land-use law, if the trail organization let its property be used for the event — even though the group decided to forgo any profits.
“It technically doesn’t matter whether your clients receive any compensation/revenue share from allowing others to hold commercial events on their property,” board attorney Evan Meenan wrote in an August email to a lawyer for Victory Hill Sector, the trail network that has run Circumburke with the Kingdom Trail Association for about a decade.
Kingdom Trail Association announced Sept. 15 the event would be canceled, citing a desire to avoid “Act 250 complications for Victory Hill” as one reason.
Last year, the state board ruled that Victory Hill’s trail work qualified as a commercial development requiring an Act 250 permit. After the ruling, organizers canceled last year’s event.
This year, Victory Hill had decided to shift Circumburke’s management — and profits — entirely to the Kingdom Trail Association, also called Kingdom Trails.
Victory Hill planned only to allow the use of some of its trails to complete the event’s route. But that wouldn’t cut it: Meenan cited a 1987 court decision to say no commercial activity could happen on Victory Hill land subject to Act 250, emails obtained by VTDigger show.
Victory Hill manager John McGill believes the email exchanges with the state lawyer fueled Kingdom Trail’s concern.
He thinks that Meenan’s email was a threat of possible enforcement — and that the state has staked out an overly harsh position to quash a source of community spirit and economic growth in the Kingdom.
“It’s lamentable and sad that that gets caught in the crossfire of this NRB dispute, but it’s also kind of bizarre that the NRB would want to rub salt in the wounds of the region and of the East Burke community by just making it worse,” McGill said.
He added: “All they had to do was say, ‘Fine, we realized Victory Hill is playing no role in this,’ and let them use the land.”
Emails show Meenan repeatedly said the board would not “definitely” pursue enforcement.
“It will make that decision when the time is ripe,” Meenan wrote to Victory Hill. “The (Act 250 ruling last year) concluded a permit is needed and the NRB has decided to defend that position.”
When asked about McGill’s claims of unfairness, Meenan said Wednesday he couldn’t comment on a pending case.
In emails, though, Meenan disputed a claim from Victory Hill’s lawyer that the state was treating the trail network differently from its peers, such as Kingdom Trails.
“All (the board) is doing is defending the (jurisdictional opinion) finding that your clients must obtain an Act 250 permit,” Meenan wrote in one email. If the state concluded that Kingdom Trails was subject to Act 250, the lawyer wrote, the board would similarly defend that finding.
“Unfairness and inequity don’t result simply because someone requested a (jurisdictional opinion) for your client’s operations first and, as a result, the matter involving your client is farther along in the (opinion) process,” Meenan wrote.
Kingdom Trails and Victory Hill have jointly run Circumburke since 2009. The event spans about 26 miles in the East Burke and Victory area, and in past years has drawn some 600 participants.
More than 80 people had registered for this year’s Circumburke before it was called off, said Lilias Ide, Kingdom Trails’ communication manager. Registrants will receive a full refund.
Ide said organizers had wanted the Circumburke route to pass through Victory Hill trails, as it always does.
“(That was) based upon the understanding that if Victory Hill did not receive monetary compensation, and KTA had permission from Victory Hill as a landowner, that the event could pass through their property,” Ide said.
Meenan, the state board lawyer, said Victory Hill had appealed the state’s decision but court hearings have been stalled because of Covid-19 and because of the legislative uncertainty around Act 250.
Circumburke 2020’s cancellation was also influenced by an ongoing Act 250 case directly involving Kingdom Trails.
In January 2020, Northfield resident David Packie requested an opinion on whether Kingdom Trails needs an Act 250 permit.
“I see industrial level (mountain biking) as clearly impacting that community and many others in profound ways, and clearly falling under the criteria of Act 250,” Packie wrote in an email to state officials.
No further updates on the case have been logged in the state’s online Act 250 database.
“At this point, the process is stalled to wait for results of the Act 250 reform bill currently in legislation,” Ide said.
Kingdom Trails leadership said the cancellation was necessary to avoid the “potential adverse impact” the event could have on its Act 250 case.
Officials might look at “the intensity and nature of use of different trail segments going back to 1970,” Ide said.
A major event like Circumburke could complicate that review process, Ide said.
Burke Town Administrator Mike Harris said he hadn’t followed the situation closely but called the cancellation unfortunate.
“It just kind of goes on par for the rest of the year,” Harris said.
The Circumburke decision comes as legislators are weighing a bill that would alter Act 250.
The Vermont Senate last week passed a slimmed-down version of H.926, a bill approved by the state House of Representatives in February. Part of the revised bill addresses trail management.
The Senate bill stipulates that trails recognized as part of the Vermont trails system will not require an Act 250 permit through the end of December 2021, as long as they existed before Oct. 1 this year.
Victory Hill currently belongs to the state trail system, but didn’t at the time of its Act 250 case last year.
A working group will report back to the Legislature early next year, when lawmakers must create a framework for managing the demands and needs of the different types of trails in the state.
The legislation’s fate is unclear as it heads back to the House before adjournment this week. Gov. Phil Scott’s administration has signaled it may not support the condensed bill, even if it passes the House.
In January, Kingdom Trails director Abby Long called on legislators to consider revising Act 250.
