Case Title: In re Munson Earth Moving Corp.

Citation: 169 Vt. 455, 737 A.2d 906

Docket Number: 

State: vermont

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Date: 1999-08-13T00:00:00Z

Document:
In re Munson Earth Moving Corp. (97-327); 169 Vt. 455; 737 A.2d 906

[Filed 13-Aug-1999]

       NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under
  V.R.A.P. 40 as well as  formal revision before publication in the Vermont
  Reports.  Readers are requested to notify the  Reporter of Decisions,
  Vermont Supreme Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801 of
  any errors in order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes
  to press.

                                 No. 97-327

In re Munson Earth Moving Corporation	          Supreme Court

	                                          On Appeal from
     	                                          VermontEnvironmental Board

	                                          May Term, 1998

John T. Ewing, Chair

  Phillip C. Linton and Leslie L. Linton of Doremus Associates, Burlington,
  for Plaintiff-Appellant.

       William H. Sorrell, Attorney General, and Scott A. Whitted, Assistant
  Attorney General,      Montpelier, for Defendant-Appellee.
       

PRESENT:  Dooley, Morse, Johnson, and Skoglund, JJ., and Corsones, D.J., Specially 	
	Assigned

       SKOGLUND, J.  Appellant Munson Earth Moving Corporation appeals the 
  Environmental Board's denial of its application for a Vermont Land Use (Act
  250) permit for  development of a residential subdivision on land it owns
  in Colchester, Vermont.  The Board  based its denial on the conclusion,
  under Act 250 criterion 9(K), that granting the permit would  endanger the
  public investment in the proposed Chittenden County Circumferential Highway
  and  Winooski Valley Park District.  Whether a proposed highway, for which
  the State has no current  construction timetable, rises to the level of a
  "facility" under Act 250 criterion 9(K) presents an  issue of first
  impression.  We hold that the Board's conclusion concerning endangerment of 
  governmental facilities is not supported by its findings and that the
  Board's interpretation  construing the circumferential highway as a
  facility under criterion 9(K) contravened legislative  intent.  We
  therefore reverse. 

       The Board's decision included findings on both the history and status
  of the  circumferential 

 

  highway and appellant's earlier attempts to develop its land.  We summarize
  them here to lend  context to our decision as well as to lay the groundwork
  for analyzing whether the findings  support the conclusions. 

       Appellant owns a 71.9 acre parcel of land in Colchester (see attached
  map**).  Appellant's  land abuts two existing municipal streets:  Macrae
  Road, which east of the nearby intersection  with Bean Road is essentially
  an unimproved dirt road; and Woodside Drive.  Most of the parcel  was
  purchased in 1983, but an existing right of way to build an extension of
  Woodside Drive  was purchased sometime subsequently (it is not clear from
  the record exactly when).  Unlike  Macrae Road, Woodside Drive has existing
  municipal utilities.  The Winooski Valley Park  District bounds appellant's
  land on the north and east down to Macrae Road.  A portion of the  land
  along the western boundary, including the right of way to Woodside Drive,
  lies in the  proposed circumferential highway corridor in segment J, (FN1) 
  the western most segment.

       In 1989, the Agency of Transportation (AOT) received a master permit
  under Act 250  for the Chittenden County Circumferential Highway,
  conditioned on the District Commission's  review of final design plans for
  individual segments of the highway.  If eventually completed, the 
  circumferential highway would constitute a limited access, four-lane
  highway running 17.7 miles  from Interstate 89 in Williston to Vermont
  Route 127 in Colchester.(FN2)   The proposed  highway corridor would
  intersect appellant's right of way to Woodside Drive.  Although some 
  segments of the circumferential highway have received final Act 250
  approval and some of those  sections 
        
 

  have been built and opened to traffic,(FN3)  the design plans for segments
  I and J, both located  west of Interstate 89, have not received final
  approval.

       Between 1988 and 1994, appellant prepared several subdivision plans
  for review by the  Town of Colchester.  Early plans contemplated a large
  development in the eighty to ninety  housing unit range that would access
  the property from Macrae Road.  The plans would have  required appellant to
  reconstruct Macrae Road east of its intersection with Bean Road, including 
  the addition of a water line, drainage, and sidewalk.  This would not have
  resulted in  development of the portion of appellant's property falling
  within the proposed circumferential  highway corridor.  The Town objected
  to the plan because of the large number of proposed  homes.  Appellant did
  not submit a plan to the Town for a smaller subdivision with access from 
  Macrae Road because the expense of reconstructing the road would not have
  been offset by the  return from fewer housing units.

       In 1992, the AOT initiated a condemnation action to take the portion
  of appellant's land,  approximately 250 to 300 feet wide and 700 to 800
  feet long, within the proposed  circumferential highway corridor.  After a
  partial hearing on the matter but before the  proceedings were concluded,
  the AOT voluntarily dismissed the action in December 1993 and  ceased
  communication with appellant.  

       In light of the Town's opposition to a large project, the difficulties
  of constructing access  from Macrae Road, and the AOT's apparent
  abandonment of the condemnation case,  appellant  then submitted for the
  Town's consideration the project now at issue - a smaller development  with
  access from Woodside Drive.  Appellant proposes to subdivide 28.98 acres
  into twenty-eight lots for single family homes, with 5.93 acres of open
  land.  Under the new plan, appellant  would build an extension from
  Woodside Drive to create a single access road for the subdivision.  Some of 

 

  the lots would have individual septic systems, and some would share a
  community system.  On  December 13, 1995, the Town gave final approval to
  appellant's subdivision plan.  The AOT did  not participate in the
  permitting process, nor did it reinstate condemnation proceedings.

       Having received final approval from the Town planning commission for
  its development  proposal, appellant filed an application for an Act 250
  land use permit, pursuant to 10 V.S.A. §  6083, with the District 4
  Commission on March 27, 1996.  The AOT at that point sought and  received
  party status to participate in the review process.  It opposed appellant's
  application on  the basis of Act 250 criteria concerning:  unreasonable
  congestion or unsafe conditions with  respect to proposed highways, see 10
  V.S.A. § 6086(a)(5); development affecting public  investments, see 10
  V.S.A. § 6086(a)(9)(K); and nonconformance with local and regional plans 
  and capital programs, see 10 V.S.A. § 6086(a)(10).  In June 1996, the
  District Commission  issued a decision approving the proposal under all Act
  250 criteria, except 9(K).  Appellant  appealed the decision to the
  Environmental Board.  The AOT filed a notice of appearance with  the
  Environmental Board but did not cross-appeal.  Therefore criteria 5 and 10
  were not before  the Board and likewise are not before us.  

       After a de novo hearing, the Board found that, if appellant were to
  build the proposed  residential subdivision and the AOT were later to
  condemn the portions of appellant's land in the  path of the current design
  for the circumferential highway, it would eliminate the four western  most
  lots directly within the highway corridor and destroy the community
  wastewater disposal  system.  If a replacement site for wastewater disposal
  could not be found, ten or eleven  additional lots would be affected and
  might have to be condemned.  Most significantly, if the  AOT did not
  redesign or realign the highway, it would entirely cut off the
  subdivision's access to  Woodside Drive.

       Although the Board found that the AOT could realign the
  circumferential highway  corridor to avoid appellant's property, it noted
  difficulties in accomplishing a realignment  because:  the Winooski Valley
  Park District abuts appellant's property on the north and east, and  the
  AOT has 

 

  already negotiated to minimize the impact of the highway on the park lands
  by passing through  the park only on its northern most periphery.  The
  Board specifically found that the 1996  Colchester master plan refers to
  the highway path as "subject to change" and states that the 
  circumferential highway route shown on the future land use map is meant to
  be general.   Nonetheless, the Board attributes the uncertainty of the
  route entirely to the unsettled alignment  of the highway through school
  district property.  According to the Board, the matter must be put  to the
  school district voters, but in any event the outcome would not change the
  alignment of the  highway through appellant's property.  

       The Board further noted that, as another alternative to condemning the
  lots in the path of  the current proposal for the highway, the AOT could
  redesign the project to cross over or under  appellant's proposed extension
  of Woodside Drive, but that, based on the historical data from an  earlier
  design,(FN4)  such a change would entail fifty to seventy million dollars
  in increased  construction costs.  If the AOT did not raise or lower the
  circumferential highway or reroute it  through park land, then the highway
  would entirely cut off access to the proposed subdivision  from Woodside
  Drive.

       With respect to the stage of highway development at the time of the
  appeal, the Board  found that the AOT owns the right of way necessary for
  the circumferential highway east of  Interstate 89, but has purchased only
  approximately twenty-three acres of the requisite 130 acres  for
  construction of the highway segments west of Interstate 89 - the area where
  appellant's land  is located.  Of the land that the State has acquired west
  of Interstate 89, two properties are  adjacent to appellant's land.  The
  AOT does not, however, have a current timetable for 

 

  construction of these circumferential highway segments, the costs of which
  are estimated at  $19,000,000.  At the time of the Board's decision, it
  found construction was not likely to  commence for at least five years as
  the segments were not included in the State's five year capital 
  construction plan.  The State has no immediate plans, nor funding, to
  commence condemnation  of appellant's lands.  Further, neither the
  Legislature nor the federal government has  appropriated funds for
  additional land purchases or construction in segments I and J.  Although 
  the AOT has obtained a master umbrella permit for the entire
  circumferential highway, it has not  received final approval for segments I
  and J.

       At issue in this case are the Board's conclusions concerning the
  status of the unbuilt  portions of the circumferential highway as a
  "facility" for purposes of Act 250 criterion 9(K) and  the proposed
  subdivision's endangerment of the circumferential highway and the Winooski 
  Valley Park District.  In its conclusions, the Board construed criterion
  9(K) to protect not only  existing facilities but also the public's
  investment in proposed facilities.  The Board concluded  that the unbuilt
  highway corridor through appellant's land comprised a sufficiently definite 
  governmental facility to qualify as a facility under 9(K).  It based this
  conclusion on:  its  determination that the Legislature had recognized the
  circumferential highway as unified facility,  see 1985, No. 185 (Adj.
  Sess.); the State's devotion of more than twenty years to the planning  and
  construction of major segments of the circumferential highway; and this
  Court's affirmance  of a necessity determination with respect to other land
  the AOT sought to condemn for the  circumferential highway even though the
  evidence at the condemnation hearing showed  construction might not begin
  for ten to fifteen years, see Agency of Transp. v. Mazza, 161 Vt.  564,
  564-65,