Charlotte voters back charter change to restore townwide votes on land-use bylaws

Karen Frost, the petitioner for the Charlotte charter request, told the Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee that residents moved to place the question on the ballot to restore a guarantee that major land-use bylaw changes go to a townwide vote. “This all started last November,” Frost said, describing conversations at local planning meetings and on the street that prompted the charter petition. She said petitioners gathered “over 250 signatures, way more than the 5% you need to get on the ballot.”

Frost said the group’s outreach found broad, cross‑partisan support. “They did not know about it. They were not okay with it. And they did think it mattered,” she said, summarizing conversations with residents. In Charlotte’s Australian ballot vote on March 4, the charter article passed 694–335, she said.

Lee Kron, chair of the Charlotte Select Board, appeared by video and said he supported the charter as written and would be open, if the charter did not pass, to an approach where the Select Board voluntarily sent major changes to voters. “My belief … is that this board would be very open to that concept of listening and determining if there were major changes being proposed to send those to the voters,” Kron said, noting some bylaw changes are de minimis or mandated by statute and could create timing challenges if limited to an annual town meeting vote.

Senator Keisha Rom Hinsdale, who identified herself as the principal author of the HOME Act, told the committee the HOME Act was intended to set statewide minimums to increase housing supply and that she worried an exemption could undercut those goals. “I would argue that most people who rent property would stand to lose from what I am proposing, because the more housing that we have available to people, the slower rents grow,” she said in a lengthy presentation about housing supply and vacancy targets in Chittenden County and across Vermont.

Committee members asked Frost about turnout and volunteers; Frost said she did not have the exact percentage of eligible voters who participated but confirmed the ballot question was decided by Australian ballot on the regular Tuesday voting day. Committee members also pressed Kron about whether the Select Board would in practice send changes to voters; Kron reiterated his view that the board would be open to doing so but that some minor changes are difficult to manage on an annual schedule.

The testimony focused on the town’s intent: petitioners said the charter is meant to restore a previously held guarantee of townwide votes on land‑use bylaw changes and to preserve civic engagement; town officials said the board would try to be responsive to voter concerns while noting practical constraints. The committee did not take formal action on H 506 during the hearing.