The purpose of this review is to try to understand the Town’s position. We have been trying to get the Town involved with the village project since January 2022 and we will continue to do so.

 

From their letter, below is the Town’s first reason (statements 1, 1a & 1b) why they feel the creation of a village is not a good idea. The Town’s statements are in italic and underlined. Bulleted points are our responses to their statements. If you have not seen the full opinion letter from the Town, contact Gayle Pezzo for a copy.

 

Just to try and add a little humor and keep things correct, it was pointed out that WHOA is a business in Charlotte that sells Equine Wellness Products. For this post and all future posts, we will not correct the Town’s use of WHOA but will refer to the Co-op or WHAI in our comments.

 

Town’s Position:

1. Westbury Home Owners Association, Incorporated is a single private organization that already controls the entire area of the proposed village in terms of land ownership, which WHOA wishes to overlay with a municipal village.

 

Our Position:

• We are unsure why after we clearly reminded the Town that residents form a village and it is impossible for WHAI to do so as it is an association, the Town continues to try and combine the two.

 

• Westbury has specific public needs that are distinct from the rest of Colchester. The Selectboard has reinforced that assertion by terminating winter plowing and now by signaling they won’t contract with a village.

 

• There would be more to gain for both the town and the residents of Westbury if the Town valued residents in the way that Burlington and Milton do. Since our Town can’t or doesn’t want to help residents of Westbury or a Village of Westbury with our specific needs, Vermont law allows for the formation of a village to meet those particular public needs of a populated area within a town.

 

• Cooperation is the way to achieve the best results. That being said, there is probably a reason why Vermont law allows citizens within a town to form a village without the support of their town government.

 

Town’s Position:

1a. WHOA, a resident owned private not-for-profit corporation has significant control over the property as outlined in your 52-page application to live in the area…This level of control appears to be far beyond what is granted to a municipality. If Westbury was a municipal village in addition to a private association, would Westbury be able to continue to enforce rules under its Occupancy Agreement excluding dogs, requiring that only homes of a

 

certain age be placed on the lots, and the authority to expel people as members of the Association and exclude them from being able to occupy lots within Westbury, as noted in section 3.6 of the Westbury Homeowners Association, Inc. Bylaws dated 12/30/2021? If Westbury becomes a municipal village, will it be legal to prohibit renting or leasing homes as noted in section 4.1 of the above-mentioned bylaws? If Westbury becomes a municipal village, will it be able to control sales of homes as noted in section 3.2 of the above-mentioned bylaws?

 

Our Position:

• Once again, the Town is trying to combine the idea of the Co-op and the village as one entity, they’re not.

 

• As Colchester is the second largest town (maybe largest now that Essex Junction has become a city) it is surprising how they interpret the statutes of municipal formation.

 

• A village is a municipality, same as a town. Why would the interaction be any different?

 

• Perhaps the Town’s lawyer could have kept confusion out of this discussion if the Town had asked: Would a village municipality interact with a Co-op differently than we (the Town) do?

 

• Additionally, the village charter would say specifically what rights and responsibilities the village has which is no different than how the Town’s charter makes clear how the Town of Colchester interacts with the Co-op.

 

Town’s Position:

1b. As an incorporated association that levies ongoing fees to its owners through lot rents, the same tool used by the prior for-profit owners, WHOA already has an efficient mechanism to collect funds for jointly funded services and infrastructure.

 

Our Position:

• This point does not seem to address any part of the discussion.

 

• A Village of Westbury will pay $53,000 less for water annually than the Co-op (contact Gayle Pezzo for written notes from our meeting with Champlain Water District).

 

• How does the fact that homeowners pay lot rent to the Co-op have anything to do with the question of whether this is good or bad for the residents of Westbury?

 

Reviewing the information above we should ask our four questions:

 

• Why would the village project be good for Westbury?

• Does the project hurt our neighbors outside of Westbury?

• Under what conditions would the Town partner with Westbury?

• Why wouldn’t the Town want to help its residents?

 

The next post will be completely dedicated to 1c.

 

Thank you for taking the time.

More to follow.

Hope all is well.

-Ralph P.