Planning Commission Meeting Draft Minutes 8.27.25
Town of Guilford
Planning Commission DRAFT Minutes
Wednesday, August 27, 2025, 6:30pm, 236 School Rd, Guilford VT
Planning Commission members attending: Charlie Light, Jeannette Tokarz, Marty Ramsburg, Jethro Eaton, Christina Belogour and Mike Szostok (Selectboard)
Call to Order. The meeting was called to order at 6:32pm.
Recognition of the Public: No public
Rules and Procedures: No changes, as outlined by Select Board. Basic respect and civility
Changes to Agenda: None
Charlie moved to accept the minutes from the June meeting. Jethro seconded and motion was carried unanimously.
New Business:
Julie Holland has moved and resigned from the Planning Commission. We discussed how to fill the vacancy. Anna Klein was approached, but she is too busy. Julie Bete has been approached, but cannot meet on Wednesday. We discussed changing the day of the week and will contact Julie again about serving.
We went over our mission statement and decided to add “engage with community on land use and other plannning commission interests.”
We also want to add to our section on the town website languge from the Guilford Guide under the heading of “Thinking of Building in Guilford” and use that section to pass along guidelines outlining good construction and land use goals. Not regulations, but things that would be helpful to people doing construction.
We discussed compliance with Act 121 and the Flood Safety Act which will become operataive in 2028. Best way to engaging with the community and aligning with town goals.There are new state guidelines and rules re flooding in river corridors. Any building project in a river valley corrdior has to go through state permitting process. This had been controversial when proposed as a town referendum in 2019 and went down in defeat. Now that it has become, in some form, a state mandate, we need to figure out the best way to discuss and implement in Guilford.
We discussed Act 181 and Home Act which promotes housing development in cnetral neighborhoods. The act offers some carrots to towns that implement zoning and sewer reguations in that there are some exemptions from Act 250 in order to promote more housing in Vermont.
Windham Regional will provide maps of here it is best to build and where the river corridors are in town. Vermont is trying to work with a state wide land use approach.
We discussed what if there were no zoning regulations and who would pay for ZBA legal issues if there were zoning?
We decided to re-apply for a municipal planning grant which would entail a two year study of evaluating zoning and land use regulations.
We discussed more of a role for the county wide planning commissions and/or increased cooperation between towns on this issue.
On Thursday, 9/25, at 7pm, Alison Spasyk will explain Act 121 and the Flood Safety Act at a public meeting and September’s PC meeting. We will try to reach out to opponents of Guilford’s Flood and Fluvial Resolutions of 2019 so their thinking and concerns can be incorporated into the dialogue. We need to discuss what we could potentially gains–access to federal funds, etc. and what we could potentially lose–access to insurance. It was brought up that insurance companies are already well award of what land might be in flood zones so that issue might be moot. The state can participate in National Flood Relief.
We discussed the GPI land garden project and how large it has grown.They have run inbto some storm water issues and we discussed potential ways to mediate the problem through infrastructure and landscape design.
We discussed progress made on the town strategic plan:
Guilford Center Scoping Study on hold until Traffic Scoping Study finishes first phase.
Many slafety hubs have been designated around town with coordinators named.
Recreation maps of trails, etc. are now available
The Guilford Guide is about to come out
Charlie makes motion to adjourn, Jethro seconds. Motion is carried unanimously and meeting is adjourned at 7:42
Marty motions to adjourn. Charlie seconds and it is passed unanimously. Meeting adjourns at 7:50.
Meeting Video: https://youtu.be/cbL0UFVdmg0