Community Utilities, Facilities and Services Policies

General

1. Encourage towns to consider and plan for their future public utility needs and support their acquiring of future public and quasi-public utility sites, properties, or interests. 

2. Support towns to identify and seek opportunities for shared services and infrastructure with other towns in order to reduce cost and improve efficiencies and the quality of service.

Water and Wastewater Facilities

3. Support water conservation measures to reduce demand for water and to promote the life span and efficiency of water facilities.

4. Ensure that any proposed land use or growth within existing or planned public water supply well-head protection areas will not pose a threat of contamination. No development that would cause any threat of contamination shall be permitted.

5. Minimize erosion and runoff to protect public and private water supplies by maintaining town roads consistent with Best Management Practices for erosion control.

6. Encourage towns to develop capital improvement plans to budget for public water and wastewater facility management and operations and to have contingency planning in place for facility failure. Plan development so as to manage wastewater effectively and to maintain surface and groundwater quality.

7. Support development of new public water and wastewater treatment facilities in areas where future growth is appropriate and in consideration of flood hazards, including regional centers, villages, resort centers, industrial locations, and growth centers as identified by town plans, and in areas where extension is required for public health purposes.

Solid Waste Management

8. Support the regular review and update of solid waste implementation plans (or “SWIP”) that regulate the safe disposal of all solid waste, including household hazardous wastes. Ensure that each town is covered by a SWIP that meets all state requirements.

9. Support federal, state, and local actions that reduce the volume and toxicity of solid waste in the Windham Region, including implementation of the Universal Recycling Law.

10. Work with solid waste entities and towns to plan for waste disposal needs, including regulations under the Universal Recycling Law, through the establishment of recycling, composting, waste reduction and reuse, and general waste management programs, while addressing public health, environmental quality, and impacts on adjacent and nearby land uses.

11. Support the assessment of waste disposal fees that accurately and fairly charge disposal costs to the waste generators.

12. Encourage towns to maintain membership in a solid waste management district, or join with other towns if there is desire for change. Multi-town districts can lessen SWIP requirements for individual towns involved and serve to increase efficiencies versus single town districts.

Radioactive Waste

13. Ensure the safe and effective storage, transportation, and disposal of radioactive waste.

14. Work to assure that standards proposed for any radioactive materials storage site in Vermont are at least as stringent as those applied to any alternative site.

15. Support public involvement regarding all spent nuclear fuel and radioactive storage permitting and licensing decisions.

16. Compensation for permanent or interim storage of spent nuclear fuel and/or high-level radioactive waste must benefit everyone in the host community, as that community is providing a critical public service to the nation as a whole. This siting and the benefits derived from it must respond to the economic and environmental justice needs of the host community.

Emergency Planning

17. Build disaster resistant and resilient communities by promoting sound land use planning that accounts for known hazards, especially climate change.

18. Encourage towns and the State of Vermont to continue to improve and adopt road, bridge and culvert codes and standards that exceed federal minimums.

19. Encourage towns to require that all new public and private roads and driveways are properly constructed so that they do not contribute to the damage of town roads from stormwater.

20. Support towns in hazard mitigation planning according to FEMA guidelines that stress consideration of mitigation possibilities and include decisions and programs related to infrastructure, policy, education and the effective utilization of the natural environment to lessen vulnerability.

21. Encourage towns to adopt the most stringent flood and fluvial erosion hazard bylaws possible. Support towns in understanding and properly implementing their bylaws. Advocate to the Agency of Natural Resources for training and other needs that towns express around bylaw administration.

22. Encourage the development and regular review and update of local emergency plans, including local emergency management plans and local hazard mitigation plans, and encourage towns to engage in climate preparation planning.

23. Support towns and emergency management entities with planning needs through the entire disaster cycle: prevention, preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. 

24. Encourage towns to consider and create evacuation plans related to their hazards and the evacuation needs around those hazards specific to their town. 

25. Support efforts by Green Mountain Power to relocate utility lines underground in order to improve grid resilience. 

Emergency Response

26. Ensure that towns are able to provide timely and effective emergency services to all persons and properties in their community.

27. Ensure that all proposed developments plan for fire hydrants or other water sources in proposed developments so that fire fighting personnel can adequately serve all structures.

28. New roads shall be designed and built so that emergency vehicles can readily maneuver and access all proposed structures.

29. Ensure that any additional emergency service personnel, facilities, and equipment needed to effectively service new development are available to avoid placing undue demands on existing resources.

30. Support the development and installation of an additional or improved emergency communications infrastructure, systems, and procedures.

31. Support the regionalization of emergency services if that is deemed desirable for those departments or entities involved.

Communications Infrastructure

32. Promote universal access to broadband telecommunications and information services that are competitive in availability and cost.

33. Encourage modernization and expansion of transmission and receiving equipment at existing transmission and receiving stations, including co-location of cellular and radio communications.

34. Siting, design, and access to communications towers and structures must show consideration and minimization of negative impacts on natural and scenic resources.

35. Require that communications towers and structures be set back from property lines and public rights of way, such that the tower or structure will not cross the aforementioned lines or rights of way in the event of a collapse.

Human Services

36. Support the development and maintenance of appropriate facilities to provide for the care of children, elderly residents, and persons with disabilities in the region.

37. Assist the coordination of community service organizations to avoid duplication of effort, as is feasible and appropriate.