Committee reviews H.506 to adopt Charlotte charter and preserve townwide votes on land-use bylaws

Representative Shay Waters Evans, sponsor of H.506, told the House Committee on Government Operations & Military Affairs on Wednesday that the town of Charlotte has proposed a new municipal charter to preserve townwide voting on land-use bylaws.

"Charlotte currently does not have a charter," Representative Shay Waters Evans said. She described the proposal as restoring a charter-style procedure that requires town approval for any change to land-use regulations, rather than allowing the municipal legislative body to adopt bylaws at its discretion.

Tucker Anderson, legislative counsel, summarized the bill for the committee: "You have in front of you H.506 as introduced, which proposes to adopt the charter of the Town of Charlotte." Anderson said the bill would add the town charter into the statute chapter previously used for Charlotte and that the key provision would require all municipal bylaws governing land use to be adopted only after approval by townwide Australian ballot.

Under current state law cited in the presentation, a municipal legislative body may adopt bylaws that become effective after 21 days unless the body affirmatively refers the bylaws to a town vote or a petition by voters forces a referendum. Representative Waters Evans and the proposed charter aim to remove that discretion for Charlotte by requiring voter approval for all bylaw adoptions and amendments. Waters Evans said voters in Charlotte approved the charter proposal at town meeting: the town has 3,444 registered voters; about 33% (1,123) participated on town meeting day, and of those, 694 voted yes and 335 voted no.

Committee members asked for context about the interaction between the proposed charter and recent state legislation known in testimony as the HOME Act. Anderson said charters are special laws that can grant municipalities exemptions from general law and noted that the General Assembly has historically both consolidated and separated charter language in state statutes. He also pointed the committee to statutory procedures for charter amendment and to standard severability language reflected in charters.

The committee did not take a vote on H.506 during the session. Members discussed next steps and said the committee would invite the local sponsor, a member of Charlotte's development review or select board, and possibly an author or staffer connected with the HOME Act to provide further testimony at a later hearing.

No formal committee action on H.506 was recorded in the transcript of the session.

Looking ahead, witnesses and staff are expected to return with more detail on why the HOME Act included discretionary municipal authority over bylaws and why Charlotte's voters sought a charter-level exception to restore townwide referenda for land-use changes.