BRATTLEBORO — The Selectboard voted 3-0 to support a floodplain restoration project at 250 Birge St. that the town is working on with the Vermont River Conservancy.
Sue Fillion, director of the town's planning department, appeared at the Sept. 18 regular Selectboard meeting to describe the project and ask for the Board's support.
In 2017, the Vermont River Conservancy purchased the Birge Street property, which lies along the banks of the Whetstone Brook and has been identified as a floodplain.
After the conservancy completes a significant cleanup project at the site, which is set to begin in the spring of 2019, the organization will convey the parcel to the town.
The conservancy, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, the Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board want that parcel to have a river corridor easement, according to an administrative report from Town Manager Peter B. Elwell.
The easement will allow for better channel management, prohibit any new structures on the land, and require a 50-foot riparian buffer.
The buffer, Fillion explained, is usually measured from the top of the stream bank, and ensures the bank remains vegetated. A walking path is possible, but no other development or clearing is allowed.
“It helps stabilize the bank,” she noted.
Selectboard member Tim Wessel pointed out that the project will strengthen the floodplain's resiliency.
It's up to the governor to approve this easement, and it could take some time, so the state “wants to get that ball moving,” Fillion said.