Too big to rent? Public hearing on VRBOs postponed

Mountain Times

October 24, 2018

By Katy Savage

A public hearing before the Killington Development Review Board about a Killington rental home was called off moments after it started Oct. 17.

Attorney Pat Burke, who represented several property owners in the Cricket Hill Community at the meeting, argued the Wednesday night meeting held no merit because the owners of the vacation rental missed the 15-day deadline to file an appeal after receiving a zoning violation notice from Zoning Administrator Dick Horner.

Horner issued the notice to Vincent Connolly on Aug. 2, explaining his three-bedroom home on Estabrook Road, which he rents to up to 28 people, is not compliant with town zoning bylaws. The bylaws only allow two-people per bedroom in residential areas.

Connolly, who was traveling at the time, didn’t receive the notice, he said. Horner reissued the notice Aug. 24. The appeal was filed Sept. 7.

The Development Review Board voted to move the public hearing to Nov. 7 at 6 p.m., so the town’s attorney Kevin Brown of Langrock, Sperry and Wool could prove guidance to the board about Burke’s arguments.

Burke further argued Connolly’s appeal failed to include the address, the full name of the property owner and property description—necessary components of zoning violation appeals. 

“It didn’t inform any of us what the appeal was,” said Burke in a later interview.

Connolly purchased his home in 2005 as a vacation spot for his friends before he started renting it to groups on the rental website, Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO). The home has enough beds for 19 people, though Connolly allows up to 28 people to stay there, he said.

The violation was issued after Whit Montgomery, who lives next door to Connolly, complained of noise from the vacationers. He also expressed concern about Connolly’s septic system overflowing with so many people in the home. Montgomery brought his concerns to a Select Board meeting in September.

“As an abutting landowner, I’m concerned for my well,” Montgomery said in a phone interview. “It’s not just my [concern] it’s the whole neighborhoods’.”

Montgomery, who works as the police chief in Killington, said he may also rent his four-bedroom home to vacationers to help pay taxes.

“I have zero issue with people renting their houses,” Whit Montgomery clarified. “This is not about that, it’s about capacity and local ordinance. We live in a residential area, but now it’s like there’s a commercial hotel on the block.”

Connolly argued after the meeting on Wednesday that his property is no different from the many other vacation rentals in Killington. In 2015, Connolly paid about $60,000 for a new sprinkler system so he could comply with the Vermont Department of Public Safety in allowing 28 people to stay there safely. He’s also gotten the O.K. from the state for his septic and water systems, he said.

However, the home still does not comply with town zoning bylaws, said Horner.

“He turned [the home] into a hotel in a residential district,” said Horner. “He has a three-bedroom and he’s renting it out to, at times, 32 people. That’s not appropriate in a residential neighborhood.”

Horner said he would look at future zoning violations on a “case by case basis.”

Connolly feels his case represents the “silent majority,” who would also be in violation of the two-people-per-bedroom restriction, should the town apply that standard universally – which is the only way a townwide ordinance should be applied, he said. Others won’t speak out for fear of also being targeted with a violation, he added.

Killington is the highest-grossing short-term rental area in the state, according to AirBnb, another popular rental site.

Connolly could appeal to the state’s environmental court depending on results of the Development Review Board meeting, Nov. 7.

About 30 people attended the meeting on Wednesday in anticipation of speaking.

“I’m disappointed we couldn’t get to the actual resolution of the argument and have some finality to it,” Horner said after the Oct. 17 meeting was postponed.

Killington sees a boom in bikes, as does the county

Rutland Herald
Friday, October 5, 2018
By Keith Whitcomb Jr. Staff Writer

KILLINGTON — Five years after it began beefing up its bicycling infrastructure, Killington Ski Resort is seeing a boom in the number of cyclists visiting its trails, and it’s affecting the surrounding area.
At the end of last year’s cycling season, the mountain saw 23,000 bikers on its trails. With three weeks left to go in this year’s season, it’s already seen 30,000, said Ben Colona, mountain bike program manager at Killington.
For perspective, four years ago the resort only saw 2,000 cyclists, he said. Two years ago, there were 12,000, and that number nearly doubled last year. Next year, the resort is projecting even more cycling visitors.

Ultimately, the resort wants to see 70,000 cyclists per year, or about 10 percent of what it sees in skiers during the winter months, he said.
What changed? According to Colona, Killington connected with Gravity Logistics, the company that helped build Whistler Mountain Bike Park in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, a world-renowned biking area.
“They gave us a business plan, which we essentially followed to the letter,” Colona said.
During the past four or five years, Killington has added two chair lifts to its mountain biking trails and increased the number of beginner and intermediate trails, opening the activity up to a wider range of people, he said.
“We were able to get a lot more people into the sport,” he said.
Mountain biking has a reputation as an extreme sport, Colona said, and it certainly can be, however, there’s now plenty of options for beginners at Killington. The resort has invested heavily in more women’s bikes, repair services, and cycling-related retail. All told, Colona thinks $5 million has been invested over a five-year period.
“We feel like it’s going in the right direction,” he said.
Five years ago, there were eight people working in the resort’s bike shop, he said. Now there are 25. While many are seasonal, some change roles for the winter months.
Cross-country bikers aren’t without options, either, he said. The Killington Mountain Bike Club (of which Colona is president) and the town of Killington have used state grant money to build 4 miles of cross-country trails. These groups aren’t officially linked to the resort, but everyone connected to cycling in the area tries to work in concert.
Local bike shops are seeing the results of the boom, says Michael Boisvert, bike shop supervisor at Basin Sports, located at 2886 Killington Road. He’s been an employee at Basin Sports for 15 years and managing the bike shop for two. “Besides the obvious increase in traffic, we’re seeing an increase in kids bicycling,” he said. “Because of the new trails they put in up there, more people can get into it.”
Before Killington added the beginner and intermediate mountain biking trails, its cycling options were somewhat daunting, even for those with experience, he said.
Boisvert noticed the increased popularity of cycling in the area three years ago.
“Now we’re definitely the most popular area in the northeast,” he said.
The Basin Sports bike shop was once seasonal, but last year decided to operate year-round, Boisvert said. It’s had to double the number of bike mechanics it employs — it’s now up to four — and expects to hire one more next year.
The boom in Killington is being felt across Rutland County, according to Shelley Lutz, volunteer at Rutland City’s Pine Hill Park and Rutland Recreation and Parks Department. Lutz said Slate Valley Trails and Sherburne Trails are all seeing increased cycling activity. She believes families go to Killington where some members like the more intense downhill cycling experience, then they travel a bit for cross country.
“It’s exploding,” she said. “We are seeing an increase in people using (Pine Hill) park.”

Man gets 30 months for fatal Killington crash

 Rutland Herald
 October 2, 2018

• By Patrick Mcardle Staff Writer

Stephen Driscoll in Rutland criminal court on Monday.
Patrick McArdle / Staff Photo

 

A New Hampshire man will spend at least two and a half years in prison after admitting on Monday to the drunk driving crash in 2017 that killed his friend who was a passenger in his car.

Stephen Driscoll, 27, of Bedford, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty in Rutland criminal court to three misdemeanor charges: negligent driving that resulted in a death, driving under the influence of alcohol and reckless endangerment.

When Driscoll’s car crashed on March 18, 2017, his passenger, Alejandro Phoenix, 30, of Rockland, Massachusetts, was killed.

During the hearing, Driscoll read from a letter he had written to Phoenix’s family.

“Eight years ago, I was brought into a group of friends that became my family and Alejandro was a part of that family. A night that was supposed to be filled with laughter and celebration ended in tragedy for so many and for that I am truly and wholeheartedly sorry,” he said.

For the first two charges, Judge Samuel Hoar sentenced Driscoll to 23 to 24 months. Both of those sentences will be served at the same time. The sentence of seven to eight months for reckless endangerment will be served after the other two, making the overall sentence 30 to 32 months.

A fourth charge, driving under the influence of alcohol with death resulting, which is a felony, was dismissed by the state under the plea agreement Driscoll entered on Monday.

Explaining the basis for the charges on Monday, Rutland County Deputy State’s Attorney Ian Sullivan said Driscoll and some friends were visiting Killington on March 18, 2017.

The group of friends had rented a taxi to take them to and from a bar they visited but after arriving back at the house they were renting, Driscoll and Phoenix got into Driscoll’s Ford Focus.

Sullivan said they didn’t drive far before the car went off Tanglewood Drive and into a tree. Driscoll suffered minor injuries but Phoenix suffered significant head injuries and died on the scene.

Asking Hoar to accept the plea agreement, Sullivan said the state appreciated the foresight shown by Driscoll and his friends in arranging transportation to and from the bar they visited in March 2017.

“Unfortunately, tragically, after having drank, after having returned to the house, that same level of awareness of foresight wasn’t present and it did have fatal consequences,” he said.

Attorney George Ostler, who represented Driscoll, called his client an “outstanding young man.”

“To have a young man with his background, with his future, accept, as part of his responsibility, to be in prison for 30 months, that’s really taking responsibility for your conduct,” he said.

Before accepting the plea agreement, Hoar said Driscoll was suffering a “hefty punishment” but he said he hoped it would send a “powerful message” about responsibility.

“The mark of a person, the mark of a man, is how he or she responds to a mistake. We all make mistakes and we all hope that the mistakes we make don’t have the kind of tragic consequences as the mistake you made on March 18, 2017,” he said.

When a person is being convicted of a serious charge, a pre-sentence investigation, conducted by the Vermont Department of Corrections, is ordered by the judge before the sentence is finalized but on Monday, Driscoll’s change of plea was accompanied by an agreement and a sentencing memorandum prepared by Driscoll.

Driscoll, who has no previous criminal history, was released on Monday but ordered to report to the Rutland jail on Oct. 29 to begin serving his sentence.

patrick.mcardle

@rutlandherald.com