By Tom Ayres, Senior Staff Writer
Volunteers with the Ottauquechee River Trail (ORT) have received an okay for a conditional use permit to proceed with work to make a third of a mile stretch of the trailhead at East End Park accessible to people with disabilities, even as the status of a state-funded revolving loan allocation for water quality and conservation efforts throughout the town — including on the 1.23-acre ORT tract — remains murky.
The Woodstock Village Development Review Board (VDRB) issued a formal decision last Friday to permit ORT volunteers to construct an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant ramp at the trailhead, remove approximately 600 feet of tree roots, resurface the first 0.3 miles of trail with hardpack, clear approximately one acre of invasive species, replant native vegetation, including bushes and trees, construct stone decorative columns, and install a stone bench at the trailhead.
Acting following an April 26 public hearing, the VDRB ruled that its decision is in keeping with Woodstock Village zoning regulations regarding floodplains and riparian buffers. In an email to ORT and town officials that accompanied the “Notice of Decision” last Friday, Woodstock Director of Planning and Zoning Steven Bauer said that the effective date of the permit is July 10, 2023, “assuming no appeal is made to the (Vermont) Environmental Court.” ORT spokesperson Tom Weschler said last weekend that volunteers hope to move forward with the accessibility effort as soon as the conditional use permit takes effect, pending any appeal that could delay the project indefinitely.
The problem, however, is that an ongoing controversy between the ORT adherents, town officials, and the Sustainable Woodstock organization about the accessibility project’s potential impact on a $280,000 revolving loan to the municipality for townwide “water quality restoration and protection” and riparian buffer conservation remains mired in uncertainty because of the Village-based ORT effort. In August 2021, Sustainable Woodstock Executive Director Michael Caduto collaborated with the Town of Woodstock in writing an application for revolving loan support from the Water Infrastructure Sponsorship Program (WISPr) of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) and its Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
However, just as those loan funds were about to be made available in early May, Sustainable Woodstock learned through the DEC’s regional watershed coordinator, Marie Caduto — Michael Caduto’s spouse — that early clearance of much of the vegetation on the ORT trailhead by volunteers in advance of having a formal permit from the town may have compromised at least a portion of the WISPr funding. At the same Woodstock Selectboard meeting in August 2021 where board members expressed support for Michael Caduto and Sustainable Woodstock to seek the WISPr loan on behalf of the town, board members also voted to use a portion of the funds, if granted, to purchase the 1.3-acre trailhead parcel adjacent to East End Park. With the expansion of activities at the then-recently created park, including summertime concerts and more, Woodstock Village Trustee Jeffrey Kahn advocated for the creation of more public parking spaces at the site, including on a small portion of land atop the trailhead parcel, above and outside of the riparian buffer and floodplain.
Adding to the bureaucratic and regulatory quagmire surrounding the state funding, it turns out that Marie Caduto administers the WISPr program in the Upper Valley region. It was she who shut down work on the ORT accessibility project when she inspected the site on May 8, asking an excavator with ArborScape, Inc. of Pomfret to cease clearance work immediately. That was one day before Kahn brought the matter before the Village Board of Trustees. The WISPr loan remains on hold while the ORT leaders, town officials, Sustainable Woodstock, and the owners of the trailhead tract, the Woodstock Resort Corporation, ponder the next steps.
During a joint conversation with Woodstock Municipal Manager Eric Duffy and Planning and Zoning Director Bauer Tuesday morning, the pair explained how the town is weaving its way through the regulatory and bureaucratic ball of confusion surrounding the status of both the ORT accessibility effort and the WISPr funding. “We had a very good meeting a few weeks ago with all the involved parties and laid out a timeframe and a plan of action to follow,” Duffy said. “As you know, VDRB issued their decision on the ORT conditional use permit a few days ago, which means there are 30 days before things can be attended to. So we’re following that path to make sure that what happens on the land follows Town and Village guidelines.
“We’re still waiting on the state of Vermont to get back to us to see if any additional state permits would be needed, based solely on where the property is located relative to the water,” Duffy continued. Those decisions rest with the DEC’s regional floodplain and watershed management officials, Bauer interjected.
“At the same time,” Duffy added, “Sustainable Woodstock has been able to get information from the state on how that acre of land would need to be restored and what would have to go in there and how that would have to work. We’re looking to see potentially if the state would simply need a plan for the WISPr funds to be restored or whether the land would have to be restored ahead of time before the funds could be made available. We’re waiting on that part as well,” the municipal manager added. “And finally, I’ve talked to the state and gotten information on how the WISPr funds work and what the potential benefits to the Village and Town would be to have those funds available.”
In a phone conversation with Weschler last weekend and again in remarks before the Village Trustees on Tuesday evening, the ORT representative raised the possibility that there may be a simple solution to the seeming impasse regarding the accessibility project, the clearing of invasive species from the ORT trailhead and the replanting of native species, and the final distribution of the WISPr loan funds. Weschler said he believes the Town Selectboard and Village Trustees could simply vote to reverse the selectboard’s 2021 decision to allocate a portion of the WISP funds for the purchase of the 1.3-acre OTR trailhead parcel by the town from the Woodstock Resort Corporation. Weschler suggested that this would free up the entire $280,000 in revolving loan funds for the use for which WISPr dollars are intended: the support of natural resource projects that provide for water quality restoration and protection and not for development projects such as adding a potential handful of parking spaces to a municipal park.
Speaking during the public comment portion at the outset of the regular meeting of the Trustees Tuesday night, Weschler had much to say. “Let’s not lose sight of what the Ottauquechee River Trail is trying to accomplish,” he admonished the board. “Five hundred people a week use the trail and our universal access project will enable all people to use and enjoy the trail, nature, and the river. Our project calls for the imperative control of invasives along with the replanting of native vegetation. ORT has greatly enhanced this parcel from a forgotten property to a vibrant companion piece to East End Park through a limited budget and a very active volunteer crew. We just received our conditional use permit and now we are in a 30-day comment period, hoping to proceed with the original project.”
In his remarks Tuesday evening, Weschler reiterated a position he’d staked out forcefully in a telephone conversation and emails with the Standard last weekend. “I ask why the Village is considering the purchase of this 1.3-acre parcel. Owning it now makes little sense,” he offered. “Maybe a few years ago there was some logic when there was the belief that sizable parking could be put on the lower level. But now the WISPr application calls for floodplain protection and to prevent development within the river corridor, which restricts opportunities. And purchase of the property by the Village and Town means there is no money for ongoing maintenance and support of the parcel. In addition, you would lose the Woodstock Resort taxes.
“I remind you that the town voted to turn down Faulkner Park a year ago, along with an $800,000 endowment to maintain the property. So why this [proposed] purchase [of the trailhead tract]?” Weschler concluded. “I would also remind you that the WISPr loan funds are not at risk. You can use the loan proceeds for Town and Village priority environmental and conservation projects. All you have to do is have the Trustees – all of you and the selectboard – vote to not purchase the 1.23 acres. Then the Town and Village would have the entire amount of the $280,000 proceeds to use for important projects, but not the purchase of this property.”
More on this is likely to emerge in the coming weeks as Duffy confers with Vermont ANR and DEC representatives, and Woodstock’s two governing bodies continue to ponder the intricacies of the WISPr funds issue. In a late-evening email on Tuesday, Duffy said, “Yes, the boards could vote to rescind any vote as long as no action has been taken on them.”