By Tom Ayres, Senior Staff Writer
The Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission (TRORC) will file an appeal of a land use permit issued by the Vermont District 3 Environmental Commission on Sept. 18 that would allow the construction of a large “farm outlet store” just north of the I-91 interchange in Hartland, one-half mile from the village center.
TRORC Executive Director Peter Gregory confirmed this week that the commission’s Board of Directors authorized the filing of the appeal at its monthly meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 27. The regional planning organization, which is represented by attorney Peter Raymond of the law firm of Sheehey Furlong & Behm in Burlington, has until Oct. 18 — thirty days from the issuance of the District 3 Commission decision — to appeal the permit authorization to the Vermont Superior Court, Environmental Division, commonly known as the Vermont Environmental Court, which adjudicates all contested Act 250 matters.
“We’ll confer specifically with our attorney about the issues that will be under appeal, but the main points are that we felt the [permit] application did not conform with the regional plan,” Gregory said when reached by phone Monday morning. The latest version of the TRORC regional plan was adopted by the commission in July of 2020. Regional environmental commissions in Vermont play key roles in determining whether proposed projects conform to Act 250, the state’s principal rural land use and development statute.
An artist’s rendering of the proposed 9,000-square-foot Sunnymede “farm outlet store” to be located in Hartland
In filings with the District 3 Commission over the past 12 months, both TRORC and representatives of the Hartland Planning Commission raised vociferous opposition to the Sunnymede Farm outlet store proposal, which has now been permitted for the construction of a two-story, 9,000-square-foot, traditional barn-style structure with a 7,500-square-foot footprint. As envisioned by the developers, SM Farms Shops, LLC, of Naples, Fla., the outlet store will include a take-out deli, bakery, small eating area, and related parking areas and utilities, with hours of operation between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., seven days per week. A proposed parking lot will feature 46 spaces, including accessible spots, recreational vehicle areas, and electric vehicle charging stations.
The primary focus of the sizable “farm outlet” building, according to the permit applicants, will be to proffer agricultural products produced two miles away at Sunnymede Farm on Town Farm Hill Road just outside Hartland Three Corners. “The Project is not a dollar store, a national chain store, gasoline station, factory outlet store, fast food restaurant, or similar traditional ‘strip’ retail/commercial operation,” Sunnymede Farm attorney James Goss of Rutland argued in an October 2022 filing with the District 3 Commission. “60-70% by gross revenue of the products sold at the Project, if not more, will be produced on the 600-acre (plus or minus) Sunnymede Farm located two miles away in the same town.” Goss went on to list the products produced at the Hartland Farm that will be sold at the proposed outlet store, including beef, pork, chicken, lamb, fresh eggs, maple syrup and other maple products, and fruit and honey from trees and apiaries situated at both the farm and the outlet store location.
In the public hearings and deliberations by the three-member District 3 Environmental Commission dating back to September 2022, both TRORC and the Hartland Planning Commission took exception with Sunnymede’s description of the project, contending that it was instead a large retail establishment proposed for a rural, agrarian zone in non-conformance with both the regional and town plans and in contradiction to the state’s Act 250 land-use regulations.
TRORC argued in a November 2022 legal filing that the proposed outlet store is in fact a large retail operation in conflict with the commission’s regional plan, which holds that such establishments “must be located in town centers, designated downtowns, or designated growth centers to minimize the blighting effects of sprawl and strip development along major highways and maintain rural character.” In another November 2022 communication to the District 3 Commission, then-Hartland Planning Commission Chair Charles Jeffries echoed and elaborated on the TRORC concerns.
“The Town of Hartland Planning Commission (HPC) opposes the granting of any Act 250 permit to Sunnymede Farm for any commercial non-residential development on the parcel of land identified in its application,” the HPC offered in “Proposed Findings of Fact” the town body filed with the District 3 body. The Hartland planners contended that the project is “not a ‘home occupation’ (or ‘home business’ or ‘small enterprise’) as defined in the Town Plan.” The municipal planners also noted that the project would be “by far the largest retail establishment in the town” and that it is “completely out of character, both presently and historically, with the area of Hartland for which it is proposed,” contending, as did the TRORC, that the farm outlet store would “promote strip development outside the designated village areas of Hartland.” The town missive added that the project would “directly and unavoidably compete with long-established (and future) businesses in the town’s designated village areas.”
In the end, District 3 Commission Chair Kevin Marshia, together with his fellow commissioners, Roderick Maclay and Suzanne Butterfield, opted to reject the TRORC and Hartland arguments and granted a land-use permit to SM Farm Shops, LLC.
Contacted Monday morning, current Hartford Planning Commission Chair Rebecca Gordon said that the town commissioners were slated to discuss their response to the granting of the Act 250 permit at the town body’s regular monthly meeting last evening, Wednesday, Oct. 4, after this edition of the Standard went to press. Gordon speculated that it was unlikely that the town commission would file its own appeal to the District 3 decision, citing the inordinate expense of litigating the issue, which she said is not within the planning body’s budget. Gordon said it’s likely commissioners will instead opt to send a “letter of response” to the District 3 Commission as the issue moves before the Vermont Environmental Court in the wake of TRORC’s pending appeal.