Waste not
Top seeds
Readers continue to weigh in on treatment plant
Football, soccer teams make playoffs
Page 5
Page 12
Volume 53 Number 43
Forest blocks, HOME Act might conflict
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shelburnenews.com
October 24, 2024
Shelburne adds more legal help on O’Brien project
Museum as classroom
PATRICK BILOW STAFF WRITER
PATRICK BILOW STAFF WRITER
The Shelburne Planning Commission is still waist-deep in a years-long project to rewrite the town’s bylaws, including what to do about forest blocks. During a recent meeting, the commission focused on a forest blocks map created by Arrowwood Environmental, which will ultimately factor into the new bylaws. Arrowwood’s Aaron Worthley presented the map and answered questions from the selectboard. Vermont defines forest blocks as contiguous forest areas unfragmented by roads, development or agriculture. They are often considered alongside habitat connectors, which describe how different forest blocks are linked. The Arrowwood map, initially presented in 2023, identifies key blocks and habitat connectors throughout Shelburne. They are available for public review on the town’s website. Arrowwood was hired by See FOREST BLOCKS on page 2
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COURTESY PHOTO
Fifth and sixth graders from Shelburne Community School recently spent the day at Shelburne Farms exploring its pond and forests with the farm’s educators and learning about the many creatures that live in those places.
The Shelburne Selectboard voted to hire additional legal counsel to review a petition from O’Brien Brothers to include the company’s potential development in the town’s utility service district. O’Brien Brothers submitted the petition earlier this summer. If its project is included in the utility service district, it would benefit from a recent state law allowing higher-density development near public utilities. The development, which has yet to hit the desk of Shelburne’s development review board, is touted as potentially the largest in the town’s history. The property owned by O’Brien Brothers is currently zoned as rural. However, after receiving the petition, the selectboard is exploring whether it can amend the utility service district to incorporate the property. Doing so would allow the company to build a much higher density of units under the HOME See O’BRIEN BROTHERS on page 10
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