New Hinesburg zoning regulations for ‘RR1’ district under review

New zoning designations being considered in Hinesburg would split one of Hinesburg’s larger areas into three separate districts — segmenting an area of town that officials say takes a one-sized approach to zoning — but has drawn concerns from larger landowners in the area who say the new regulations could potentially devalue their properties.

The rezoning proposal for the “Rural Residential 1 Zoning” district — an area extending from the village growth area to the town’s northern border near Mount Pritchard — would establish three new districts “with different priorities and development potential,” Alex Weinhagen, Hinesburg’s town planner, said.

“The principal intent and the rationale for even looking at this in the first place comes from the town plan — there’s been an action item in the plan for a number of years to take a look at the zoning district,” he said. “This district looks a little bit disparate and seems to be taking a one-size-fits-all approach to areas that don’t really look the same or function the same: highly developed areas along Richmond Road versus very rural areas with almost no development on the northern part of the district.”

The rezoning plan has been in the works since at least 2021. A public hearing on the proposed changes has been scheduled for June 14.

The town for decades has worked to concentrate housing and mixed-use development growth in its town village — 40 square miles of land off Route 116, wedged between the LaPlatte River and Patrick Brook. In the next six to 10 years, more than 400 units of residential housing are set either for approval or construction in the area.

But above that area lies the RR1 district — one of four current zoning districts in Hinesburg that include the village growth area, the RR2 district to the east of Route 116, and the town’s agricultural district to the west of Route 116.

Under the plan, the RR1 district would be sectioned off three ways: the Richmond Road corridor, an area just above the village growth area that is served by municipal water and sewer, would be changed to the “Residential 3” district.

The “Residential 4” district would then extend just above that and would provide for “a transitional zoning district between the village growth area and these more rural districts,” Weinhagen said.

“Really what the current RR1 district itself has served over many decades is sort of a transition area, and so this is just putting a finer point on it,” he added.

But the “greatest distinction” is the newly proposed Rural 1 district — which would encompass large portions of land to the north and east of Hinesburg’s downtown.

Limitations on subdivision and density requirements in this new zoning district would mirror the town’s RR2 and Agricultural districts. The purpose of this, Weinhagen said, is to provide more ecosystem and resource protections.

“The priority for that district is not housing. The priority for that district is to... try to limit the impacts on the natural landscape,” he said. “There is still development potential that’s retained and allowed in that rural one district. But it’s far less than what would be allowed in the residential three district, for example, and, frankly, quite a bit less than what would be allowed in the residential four district as proposed.”

But drawing concern from property owners living in the Rural 1 district are provisions that would increase the size of acreage required to subdivide. Current regulations allow for 3-acre zoning, but under the proposed Rural 1 district, properties that are under 12 acres would not have any subdivision potential.

“My opinion is they’re just trying to tighten that up, so it makes it even more difficult for landowners to develop land,” said Tony St. Hilaire, a property owner with a large parcel of land in what would be the rural 1 district. “We bought the property 20 years ago with three-acre zoning. Now they’re changing it and putting more restrictive rules on it.”

St. Hilaire, who owns more than 40 acres of property in the area, is one of more than a dozen other property owners in the area who have voiced concerns.

“To me, they’re trying to take away value from our property,” he continued. “All it’s doing is making it harder and harder for a landowner. A grandfather clause or something like that, that would protect us... (but) they have no interest in that.”

Shane Bissonette, the co-owner of Bissonette Properties and Al’s French Frys in South Burlington, owns two homes in Hinesburg that would fall in the new rural 1 district— 26 acres total between the two abutting properties — and resides in one of them.

He said that, under the current zoning, he could build “a potential of maybe six houses” on the property, but with the proposed zoning changes, it would cut that down to one or two houses.

“It’s a lot of value lost,” Bissonnette said, something that “the town has just decided that they can take away from me.”

“The folks that have a family farm, that’s a large piece of acreage that’s been in the family for generations... They’re losing the ability to do anything with that land,” he said, adding the town is “basically going to nullify their ability to have any sort of economic value there with that land.”

Weinhagen has said the questions raised are “certainly valid concerns, and the planning commission has been listening to them.”

“The proposal tries to take that into consideration,” he said, adding that development potential still exists for owners of larger parcels in the rural 1 district.

“I don’t think anybody wants to sugarcoat that … We want to be honest about the fact that that is a substantial change,” he said. “But I think what we heard from landowners was that very few, if any, are seeking to build out to those theoretical densities under the current zoning. And that the densities we’re proposing will still allow them a reasonable amount of development potential for the future.”

The planning commission, after its public hearing June 14, will decide whether to make additional changes or not, and will then send those changes to the selectboard — who will repeat the process before final approval.