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PASSED
in the State House of Representatives
on May 4, 2017, by a vote of
85-58
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Purpose: To expand state control over privately owned land in the name of environmental protection (preventing forest fragmentation) by making it legally difficult and expensive for land owners to develop or subdivide their property.
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Analysis: The “Forest Fragmentation” bill makes it much more difficult for property owners to develop subdivide their land by creating a number of regulatory criteria that must be met in regard to preserving “forest blocks,” defined in part as “a contiguous area of forest in any stage of succession and not currently developed for nonforest use.”
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“Fragmentation” means “the division or conversion of a forest block or habitat connector by the separation of a parcel into two or more parcels; the construction, conversion, relocation, or enlargement of any building or other structure, or of any mining, excavation, or landfill; and any change in the use of any building or other structure, or land, or extension of use of land.”
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The burden of proof that any new development plan complies with these regulations falls upon the land owner/applicant. Clearly, these regulations will have the effect of devaluating subject property. This is an example of “regulatory taking” by the state.
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Those voting YES want to impose additional Act 250 regulation on rural forest land. Those voting NO believe rural forestland additional regulation of forestland is unwarranted, and will discourage long term investment in forestland and in forestry.
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As Recorded in the House Journal, Thursday, May 4, 2017: “Shall the bill pass? was decided in the affirmative. Yeas, 85. Nays, 58.” ( Read the Journal, p. 2222-2226.)
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