We end run. We invent sometime to get us through the crisis. We wait and see. We don't wait until the legislature gets around to finding a solution, and we don't rely too much on Montpelier or Washington to solve our problems. All of the best ideas for changing Vermont law come from local experience.
Town charters are among the richest sources of new general municipal law.
When you travel to Montpelier to testify, they listen. The state legislature has given the zoning board the standards to use in rendering a decision, but the board is very much alone in deciding the case. The law doesn't help when the question is whether this applicant should have a permit, when we denied one like it last year to somebody else. Or when the applicant is a perfect jerk, and offends everybody he meets. Or when the room is full of unhappy opponents, who don't understand that the board is obliged to grant a permit if the standards are met, even if a lot of people dislike the outcome.