Handicap parking spot coming to town beach

On June 9, the Charlotte Selectboard approved the creation of a handicap parking space and an adjacent loading zone on the west side of Lake Road, just north of the Holmes Creek Covered Bridge. The work will take place within the next few weeks, alongside an already planned repaving of a portion of the road.

The new parking spot, which will replace a gravel shoulder, constitutes what recreation commission co-chair Maura O’dea-Wygmans called “phase one” of an effort to make the town beach ADA-accessible. In theory, it will eventually provide access to a ramp that will accommodate wheelchair users, as well as beachgoers carrying kayaks and other small watercraft.

Officials haven’t yet settled on a design for the ramp. O’dea-Wygmans presented a $33,000 proposal from Ferrisburgh’s Dock Doctors in which a permanent 10-by-10-foot concrete block, sunk partially into the beach, would anchor a pair of removable aluminum gangways, but she didn’t sound especially enthusiastic about it.

“It’s not going to look great,” O’dea-Wygmans acknowledged. She noted a desire within the recreation committee to investigate the possibility of a year-round installation, which would avoid the $2,300 annual cost of putting in and taking out the gangways.

In the meantime, the town’s improvement-and-repair fund will pay for the new parking space, a $4,012 expense that will draw from a $10,000 earmark for the maintenance of the town beach stairs.

Those “do need repair because the bottom step is eroded due to high water levels,” O’dea-Wygmans said, “but I don’t think there’s any plan currently to repair those stairs.”

Tree planting and removal applications

Charlotters must seek the town’s permission before planting or removing trees from municipally owned land, which includes the privately leased areas of Thompson’s Point. Tree warden Clifton Mix and deputy tree warden Mary Cheney want to make that process a bit clearer.

“Since we’ve been in this position, it seemed like we were quickly inundated with a lot of requests for tree cutting,” Mix said. “And once we got into it, after several meetings with different people, we determined that there really was no system that was in place.”

According to Cheney, the criteria for tree removal is more complex than most people realize.

“What we found is that people would call us and say, ‘We want to take this tree down. Just tell us yes,’” Cheney recounted. “And they were kind of surprised that Cliff would want to go and look at it. And then, once he got there to look at it, they were very surprised that he would say, ‘No, there’s no need to take this tree down.’”

Cheney came up with the idea of creating a formal application for residents. Now, they must select one of eight valid reasons for removing or pruning a public tree on a fillable PDF.

The selectboard approved the introduction of the form, but it triggered a debate about whether the rules should apply to trees on private land within the town’s right-of-way. According to selectboard member Frank Tenney, they shouldn’t, except in cases where the town planted the trees itself.

By Tenney’s account, a municipality gains jurisdiction over privately planted trees in its right-of-way only with the adoption of an official “Shade Tree Preservation Plan,” which Charlotte doesn’t have. He referred to the Vermont League of Cities and Towns and Charlotte’s previous tree warden as the sources for his information.

Cheney disputed Tenney’s interpretation of the relevant laws, citing her own conversations with attorneys. The debate stands unresolved, but the town will play it safe for now. The selectboard moved to amend Cheney’s proposed form, which had sought to address “any tree or shrub within the town right-of-way (ROW) or on town property,” limiting its scope at least temporarily to the latter.

“We will work to clarify,” selectboard chair Lee Krohn said.

New conservation commissioner

Eli Lesser-Goldsmith will join the Charlotte Conservation Commission for a two-year term, following an appointment by the selectboard on Monday. The Charlotte resident is also the owner and CEO of Healthy Living, which operates grocery stores in South Burlington and Williston.

In his interview, Lesser-Goldsmith described a desire to see Charlotte become “a much more open and welcoming place for many more people that want to make it their home. I think there’s a lot of potential for really thoughtful and respectable growth and development in Vermont.”

Selectboard member Natalie Kanner wondered if Lesser-Goldsmith’s pro-development stance would represent “an opposing viewpoint” among local conservationists. Fellow board member JD Herlihy suggested that the commission would benefit from “a diversity of thought.”

“There’s a lot of things with Eli that I agree with. There’s a lot of things that I’ve disagreed with,” board member Lewis Mudge said. “But when we have open slots on boards, if people want to step up and volunteer and spend their time helping the town, I think we owe them.”