Royalton
Selectboard members and planning commissioners from Royalton, Sharon, Strafford and Tunbridge met at the Royalton Academy building to discuss the plans of David R. Hall, a multimillionaire Mormon from Provo, Utah, who has bought nearly 900 acres of land in those towns with the intention of creating a “NewVista” development — a self-sustaining, eco-friendly community of as many as 20,000 residents.
Monday’s gathering hosted by the Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Planning Commission drew more than 70 people, at least a third of whom were municipal officials.
The regional planners emphasized that they could not pass judgment on Hall’s plans, since for now they are only a vision, and not a proposed project in need of a permit.
Asked by residents whether Hall’s dream would conflict with the regional plan, Senior Planner Kevin Geiger said he didn’t yet know “because it’s not a project yet.”
He noted, however, that an extra 20,000 people living here would increase the population in Two Rivers’ jurisdiction by nearly 30 percent.
“It’s of a scale that gives us pause, and it needs to be watched very closely,” he said.
“I can’t even imagine how this is possible,” Two Rivers Senior Planner Chris Sargent added. But to gauge the vision’s conformance with the regional plan, he said, “We need to have all of the facts. We need to have all of the details.”
All the same, they said, obtaining permits would be a large undertaking, and would almost certainly trigger Act 250, Vermont’s statewide land-use law.
“The grandiose scale of their vision would obviously be an enormous permitting process,” Geiger said.
That’s where Two Rivers comes in. The regional planning commission develops a land-use plan for the 30 or so towns it covers, and that document helps direct the Act 250 regulatory proceedings.
The law also draws on town plans, and the Two Rivers representatives coached municipal officials on how to craft them.
There is a distinction in town plans between regulatory and visionary language, Sargent said. Terms such as “shall not,” “must” and “prohibited” are considered regulatory, and must be obeyed; words like “discouraged” are less firm, and can be ignored.
Understanding the difference, the Two Rivers planners said, can help towns make sure their values are respected.
“Come permit time, you can’t look at your plan and say, ‘We said “discouraged”; we meant “no,” ’ ” Geiger said.
Though the meeting was mostly geared toward municipal officials, the Two Rivers officials offered a few strategies that residents could use to give themselves a greater say in the development.
Those grassroots efforts could include creating groups that buy land in the area Hall plans to use — he says he needs roughly 5,000 contiguous acres — and restricting their future use through conservation easements or agreements with nearby land trusts.
Religion was a common thread in the conversation. Hall has said that his plans are inspired by the Mormon faith’s founder, Joseph Smith, who was born in Sharon.
On Monday, State Rep. Jim Masland, D-Thetford, whose district includes Strafford and Sharon, expressed concern that Hall would seek a religious tax exemption for his settlement.
“Would they want to draw a dotted line on the map and say, ‘This is now a religious organization and is exempt from property taxes?’ ” he asked.
Walter Hastings, a lister from Royalton, said no: under a Vermont Supreme Court decision, property receiving such exemptions must be used for religious ceremonies.
Hall says his development would not be religious, despite its inspiration. He also says he has not coordinated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A spokesman for the church last month said he was unfamiliar with the project, appearing to confirm Hall’s claim.
“We’re just learning about this proposed development and haven’t had time to study it,” the spokesman, Dale Jones, said in an email.
Later, Geiger warned officials to keep their religious concerns out of the regulatory process.
“You really, really, really want to avoid — for good reason — any discussion about ‘I really like the religious part of this’ or ‘I really don’t like the religious part of this,’ ” he said. “That is off the table, folks.”
He added, “Any time somebody comes before you, you treat them like your neighbor, whether you’re their neighbor or not.”
Hall, in past interviews, has mentioned that he envisions his Vermont NewVista community as a separate “township,” and on Monday, residents asked what it would take for that to happen.
The regional planners replied that state lawmakers held that power.
“I have no opinion on the idea of the Legislature creating a new town, but the likelihood might be low,” Geiger said.
“It might take a while,” Masland said.
There was considerable debate over whether Hall’s plans would ever come to fruition — and, therefore, whether they were worth fretting over at all.
The Utah developer has cautioned that he is still in the research and development stage of the project, and is decades away from even consolidating the land he would need to realize it in Vermont.
Given that, Masland said, “It’s quite possible that this grand plan will kind of fritter away after a while and not happen.”
Others expressed concern that Hall’s assurances that change was far away were meant to deflect criticism — or, as one resident put it, “lure us into complacency.”
Paul Haskell, Sharon’s representative on the Two Rivers board and the town’s former Selectboard chairman, warned that, regardless of its chances of success, the scale of the possible project made it worth taking seriously.
“I want to remind everybody that we have a vision of something that is several times larger than our respective towns,” Haskell said. “We shouldn’t be surprised if something we thought couldn’t happen could happen.”
“As a planner,” Geiger said later, “I largely think about things 50 years in the future. Your house and the roads you drive on were decided for you by someone 50 years ago.”
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or at 603-727-3242.