February 24,  2010 (Wednesday) – General Meeting@ 7:00PM; St. Paul’s Methodist Church hall, Church St., St. Albans City . __________________________________________________________________________________________

January 27, 2010 (Wednesday) – General Meeting @ 7:00 PM; St. Paul’s Methodist Church hall, Church St., St. Albans City.

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November 19, 2009 (Thursday) 2nd DRB hearing Re: Lowe’s application @ 7:00 PM St. Albans Town Hall.

November 11, 2009

After a long hiatus, we are returning this website to active status. Please bear with us as we get the hang of things!

October 4, 2006:

St. Albans Town has
moved to vacate the Town Development Review Board’s decision to permit the
Wal-Mart project, in response to a ruling that the DRB panel represented at
least one conflict of interest. The Town Selectboard (who appointed the DRB)
expressed confidence that new hearings can be accomplished quickly so that the
project can move forward. Our attorney, Jon Groveman, observed that they seem to
have already reached a decision before these new hearings have even taken place;
and that unless a truly impartial DRB is in place, another ruling in favor of
the project would still be tainted.

July 4, 2006:

Act 250 Hearings are
now in recess. Following four days of testimony and cross-examination, during
which Jon Groveman of the VNRC effectivly exposed the innacuracy of Traffic and
Economic Impact Studies submitted by JLDavis, the hearings have been recessed
until further notice.

May 17, 2006:

Findings and evidence
were filed Friday for the hearings by the District 6 Environmental Board. They
make a stack of paper more than four inches tall. See the calendar for coming
dates of this process.

The NWCRG Media Committee decided, last evening,
that a third Festival will be held. This festival is planned to include union
members and officials from Quebec. Practice your French!

The Agency of
Natural Resources has issued a permanent storm water permit for the Wal-Mart
project.

May 3, 2006:

It has been over a
month since this page was updated. Much has happened.

This past week the
Vermont Agency of Natural Resources issued storm water permit to JL Davis for
the Wal-Mart Project.

NWCRG staffed a table at the St. Albans Maple
Festival.

The Northwest Regional Planning Commission decided to let The
District #6 Environmental Board decide the issue by passing the project to that
board.

This was the most prejudiced commission decision that I have ever
seem. Most members of the Commission did not care whether the project met the
Regional Plan.

The Ad Hoc Committee was a political sham. It should be
removed from the NRPC’s bylaws. Politically biased procedures have no place in
Vermont.

A number of members performed price comparison shopping between
the Dollar Store in St. Albans and the Williston Wal-Mart. Bar codes and
quantities were checked to be sure the items were the same. Believe it not, the
Dollar Store was cheaper by about $5.00, not considering the cost of the trip to
Williston. The report was published in the County Courier.

Some of the
core members have had discussion about how to reorganize. Irresponsible growth
in St. Albans is going to involve many projects and we feel there will be too
many meetings for all of us to attend. A proposed response to this is to select
two members to keep track of each project. All members are welcome to attend but
the two selected would be responsible for our efforts for each project. Tell
witchcat@wildblue.net what thoughts and questions you have about the idea.
Nothing about the idea is defined at this time.

On April 26, 2006, Jon
Groveman filed an objection with the St. Albans DRB in the matter of a
subdivision of the remainder of the Wal-Mart site acreage. The points raised are
that the DRB has no authority to act on the application because the previous
permit is being appealed and that the project does not comply with the
subdivision bylaws

March 27, 2006:
The local, political straw men of the
Northwest Regional Planning Commission decided, last night, to send the report
of their Ad Hoc Committee onto the Environmental Board, with the Project Review
Committees report as notes appended. This is a disappointment but not a
surprise. The battle now moves fully to the Environmental Board. Stay tuned.

March 23, 2006:
The third meeting the Northwest Regional
Planning Commission’s Ad Hoc Committee was held. It began as a discussion over
public transportation issues

Sue Prent states that no consensus was reached on any topic.

March 16, 2006:
The second meeting of the Northwest
Regional Planning Commission’s Ad Hoc Committee held its second meeting. There
was consensus that the NRPC and the St. Albans Town could work out a new
location of the boundary line of the Town Growth Area around I-89 Exit 20 and
that since that was being done there was no contentious issue between those
parties. Bruce Douglas, East Fletcher, the representative from the Town of
Fletcher, broke consensus by objecting to the adequacy of provisions for public
transportation and energy saving. Jack Brigham and Bill Nihan, representatiing
St. Albans Town, broke consensus by objecting by voting against a resolution
requiring sidewalks to be built as required by the Regional Plan. The impact of
traffic on the region was discussed but tabled, without resolution.

February 29, 2006:
The first meeting the the ad hoc
committee of the Regional Planning Commission was held at 6:30 PM at 155 Lake
Street. The first half of the meeting was spent attempting to agree on a
consensus of the meaningof consensus. The second half of the meeting organized
when additional meetings are to be held.

Vermont Senate Bills of importance to planning and growth
are S97, S0122, S0125, S0142, S0151, S0204 and
S0216. See this site’s resources page to look up these bills and
the legislators to whom to write about them. See Vermont
Bill Tracking System, Senate Bills, 2005-2006 – The current status of bills
introduced into the Vermont Senate. Many pertain to growth and development.

February 15, 2006, Wednesday
The Northwest Regional
Planning Commission tabled the report of the Project Review Committee of that
Commission and appointed an ad hoc committee to resolve the differences between
St. Albans Town and the Project Review Committee concerning conformance between
the the Region Plan and the host town, according to their rules of procedure.
The usual Citizens turned out.

February 8, 2006Vermont Natural Resources Council, Marie
Frey and Richard Hudak and the Northwest Citizens for Responsible Growth granted
temporary party status before the District 6 Environmental Commission. The above
will be treated during the hearing as though their party status is permanent but
determination of permanent party status will be announced with the decision.

January 31, 2006
Marie Frey presented the Hudak Farm’s
petition for party status before the District 6 Environmental Board.

January 11, 2006
The Program/Project Review Committee of
the Northwest Regional Planning Commission voted eight to two to report to the
full Commission that the J.L. Davis PUD, Town of St. Albans, does not conform to
the Regional Plan.