The Essex, Vt., town planning commission denied a zoning request from the state that would have advanced plans to build a new women’s prison.

The decision, the latest roadblock in state attempts to build new secure facilities for adults and juveniles, may force officials back to the drawing board as they evaluate how to address ongoing challenges with Vermont’s existing women’s prison, which is overcrowded and in need of significant repairs.

“I’m not against the concept of a prison,” Joshua Knox, the commission’s chair, said at the Thursday night meeting before the vote. But he and other members felt the state was unable to make key promises, such as ensuring public transportation near the potential facility. “I want that to be locked in and decided,” he said.

All commission members casting a vote rejected moving forward with the state’s zoning request.

The vote may end a 14-month process during which the Department of Corrections and Department of Buildings and General Services considered two state-owned properties in Essex as possible sites for a new women’s correctional and reentry facility.

Women incarcerated in Vermont are currently detained at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington. But the facility, built in the 1970s, suffers from faltering infrastructure, issues that women held there have said they want addressed. In recent weeks, the prison has hit capacity, with some units holding more women than they were designed to.

Irene Wrenner, an Essex town resident and a former state senator, spoke at Thursday’s meeting about the importance of constructing a more dignified prison.

“The showers reeked of human waste and were infested with sewer flies, maggots and mold,” she told the planning commission, describing the South Burlington prison.

While Essex residents who participated in recent public meetings about a possible new prison have been split on their views, most have opposed building a new facility in Essex.

Haley Sommer, a Department of Corrections spokesperson, said the state was still evaluating the planning commission’s decision and what it means for future plans for a new women’s prison.

This story was republished with permission from VtDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To learn more, visit vtdigger.org/community-news-sharing-project.