CHARLOTTE — Evergreen Family Health Partners has suspended efforts to move the Charlotte Family Health Center back into Charlotte.
The business announced its decision Sept. 15, citing regulatory barriers, controversy and a lawsuit as factors in that choice.
Evergreen Family Health Partners wanted to build a 4,275-square-foot health center in the downtown area, but the project has been a point of contention in Charlotte for years, and in recent months the debate over whether or not to allow it has intensified.
The Charlotte Family Health Center was moved to Shelburne in 2019, after Evergreen Family Health found its old Charlotte location unsuitable to run a practice. But it wanted to return to town, and for the past two years has worked on getting approval for and purchasing the property at 251 Ferry Road for its new office.
But over the years, a series of obstacles stood in the way, according to Paul Reiss, senior partner at Evergreen Family Health — regulations, escalating costs for building materials, a labor shortage, and most recently, appeals against the town’s approval of the project.
At this point, two groups of nearby residents have filed appeals of town approval to locate the health center at the Ferry Road site.
Eighteen residents, led by conservation commission member Ronda Moore, filed an appeal Aug. 16 with the Vermont Environmental Court against the Charlotte Planning Commission’s July 29 decision to approve locating the health care center on Ferry Road.
On Aug. 27, Gene and Rene Kaczka-Valiere, who live just west of the site, also filed an appeal, but did not specify the grounds for their opposition; that could come if the appeal goes to trial.
Opponents who signed on to the Aug. 16 appeal say potential damage to wetlands on and near the site is one of their major concerns.
The conflict could take years to resolve in court, according to the group’s lawyer, Jon T. Anderson of the Burlington law firm Primmer, Piper, Eggleston and Cramer.
The court appeal contends the project would violate a town ordinance, which does not allow development in wetlands or in wetland buffer zones, which extend 50 feet from a wetland, Anderson said. He cited town regulations that “no clearing or grading shall take place within shoreland, surface water and wetland setback areas.”
The town government agrees that the project infringes upon wetlands; the question is how much wetland disturbance is acceptable, and on what quality of wetlands. The appellants seem to say none at all, but the town government views things a little differently, according to Larry Lewack, Charlotte’s town planner.
Lewack said the health care center would have minimal adverse impact on the wetlands because the center would cover only a small portion of them, and the wetlands have already been disturbed.
Lewack also said the center, which would be in a central location, would be a benefit to the community and that many residents would like to have a health care center in town again.
Lewack said he spoke for himself and Peter Joslin, the chair of Charlotte’s Planning Commission, who declined comment.
According to a report by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, the wetland plays a significant ecological role in the area.
Tina Heath, the department’s Chittenden County wetland ecologist, visited the site and labeled it a class II wetland, meaning it is protected by the state, has some important value and is neither a pristine wetland nor extremely damaged. Class I and II wetlands are protected under state wetland rules, but class III wetlands are not.
In her designation, Heath noted that the wetland covers more than half an acre, contains woody vegetation, is adjacent to a body of water and is home to Gray’s sedge, a plant listed on the state’s list of rare, threatened and endangered plants and animals.
The wetland is part of a 54.7-acre network that serves as headwaters to Thorp Brook and includes a section of the Mesic Clayplain Forest, a rare type of forested area that was abundant in Vermont prior to European settlement but has been greatly diminished and altered over the years, according to Heath.
Heath wrote in an email that, because the state wetlands program hasn’t yet received all the application components for the project, it is too early to tell how the project would affect the wetland.
“The wetlands program does not prejudge a proposal until all permit application materials are available for review,” Heath wrote. “Our goal is to work with landowners on their project ideas to come up with a design that is most compatible with the wetlands on the property, such that there are no undue adverse impacts to the wetland or its functions and values.”
Town leaders agree that there’s a significant wetland in the area, but say the proposed location of the health care center is less important.
Lewack noted that the proposed health center site has been previously disturbed, and the center would build over only 230 square feet of the wetland, causing minimal impact.
“We’re not talking about high-quality wetland,” Lewack said. “Most of the town area in the West Village was built on and graded and regraded, so the wetlands don’t perform wetland functions.”
Evergreen Family Health is supporting the town government in the appeal, in which it contends its approval of the health care center was the right decision.
