Green Up day
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Hinesburg readies for annual roadside cleanup
CVU Redhawks notch five wins on the week
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April 27, 2023
Weekly news coverage for Charlotte and Hinesburg
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Hinesburg’s community solar project falters
Communal music
COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
Efforts to build community-based solar array on the town landfill have faltered after the company told the town it couldn’t garner enough membership among residents to continue to pursue the project. The solar project will still get built out but the energy it generates will go primarily to private investors, who will still need to find buyers of the energy. “Acorn Renewable Energy Co-op has
reached a turning point with respect to its planned community solar array on the Hinesburg landfill,” Benjamin Marks, the president of Acorn, said in a letter to the town. “Unexpectedly, the biggest challenge we faced with this project has been finding enough participants in the (Vermont Electric Co-Op) territory to pay for project construction.” Acorn, which serves residents in towns in See SOLAR PROJECT on page 12
Charlotte’s planning commission approves cannabis regulations LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
PHOTO BY MARIANNA HOLZER
Rik Palieri, leader of the Hinesburg SongFarmers, at the Carpenter-Carse Library on April 6. See story, page 2.
Charlotte’s planning commission approved its draft cannabis land use regulations Thursday but growers fear what the new guidelines could mean for their businesses. The decision comes after nearly six months in limbo and a contentious few weeks regarding cannabis cultivation in town. Without regulations to guide cannabis cultivation, growers have been at the discretion of the town’s development review board and the selectboard, which also acts as the town’s local cannabis control commission. Town planner Larry Lewack said the work on cannabis regulations began almost immediately after the November election and has since been the main topic at every commission meeting. On March 23, the commission held a
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public hearing where multiple residents showed overwhelming support for the commission’s efforts, most citing issues with the lack of control given to municipalities by the state while also urging members to take every effort to regulate this growing business. “We didn’t do everything that the people who have been vocally opposing cultivation wanted us to do nor did we do everything cannabis business owners said that they wanted us to do,” Lewack said. “We steered a middle path.” The approved regulations, which are available on the town’s website, show where cannabis cultivation would be allowed and under what sort of review cannabis operations would need to undergo. According to the draft, in the commercial See CANNABIS on page 12
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