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Lawmakers weigh aligning forestry with agriculture exemption under Act 250
Summary
Lawmakers and counsel debated a draft that would treat logging and forestry like agriculture for Act 250 purposes, weighing whether jurisdiction should attach to an entire parcel or only to portions proposed for development and whether on-site, mobile wood-processing should be exempt from regulation.
A legislative working session on changes to Act 250 focused Tuesday on whether forestry and logging should receive the same parcel-based treatment that agriculture currently enjoys, and on whether small-scale, mobile wood-processing should be treated as exempt forestry activity or as commercial wood-products manufacturing requiring Act 250 review.
Legislative counsel warned lawmakers that the draft language under consideration—replacing references to parcels "devoted to logging or forestry activity" with wording tying jurisdiction to the portion of a parcel where development is proposed—would be "a significant departure from how Act 250 works," and would likely require rearranging other statutory provisions and accounting for relevant case law, the counsel said.
Why it matters: Under current interpretation and case law, Act 250 jurisdiction generally…
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