Mount Snow, Ltd. Parking Plan
Annotate this Case
Download PDF
STATE OF VERMONT ENVIRONMENTAL COURT In re Mount Snow, Ltd. Parking Plan (Application #05 MS100 05) (Appeal of Vermont Wild Hotel, Inc.) } } } } } Docket No: 227 10 05 Vtec Decision and Order on Motion to Withdraw Application and Dismiss Appeal Appellant Vermont Wild Hotel, Inc. appealed from a decision of the Development Review Board (DRB) of the Town of Dover granting an amendment to Appellee Applicant Mount Snow, Ltd. s Planned Unit Development, approving a master parking plan showing 4,139 parking spaces. Appellant is represented by Thomas M. French, Esq. and Potter Stewart, Jr., Esq.; Appellee Applicant is represented by Thomas G. Montemagni, Esq.; and the Town is represented by Joseph S. McLean, Esq. Appellee Applicant has moved to withdraw the application, has filed its consent to the Court s vacating the underlying DRB decision, and has moved to dismiss the appeal as moot. Applicant Mount Snow, Ltd. obtained approval from the Dover Development Review Board of an amendment to its Planned Unit Development approving a master parking plan for 4,139 parking spaces, of which approximately 126 parking spaces involve land about which Appellant Vermont Wild Hotel, Inc. contests Applicant s property rights to use for parking. The DRB decision approving that master parking plan was denominated #05 MS100 05 (the 05 Permit). Appellant appealed that decision to Environmental Court in the present appeal (Docket No. 227 10 05 Vtec). While this appeal was pending, Applicant submitted a new application to the DRB for approval of a revised master parking plan that contained a total of 4,228 parking spaces, which would provide the 4,096 spaces required by the zoning ordinance even without 1 counting the contested spaces. The DRB decision approving the subsequent master parking plan was denominated #05 MS100 07 (the 07 Permit). The 07 permit decision clearly lays out that the spaces were calculated as the spaces approved in the 05 decision, deducting the spaces for another use allocated in a separate unappealed decision on application #05 MS100 04, and deducting the spaces allocated for property being sold in a separate unappealed decision on application #05 MS100 06, and adding the spaces approved in a remote (golf course) parking lot in the 07 permit decision. No party appealed the 07 permit decision (including the issue Appellant now seeks to raise regarding the DRB s jurisdiction to consider that subsequent application), and therefore no aspect of the 07 permit decision is before the Court. 24 V.S.A. §4472(a). Applicant now moves to withdraw its permit application underlying the 05 permit decision, agrees that the DRB decision on that application may be vacated, and moves for the dismissal of the above captioned appeal as moot. Appellant opposes the request, arguing that the DRB lacked jurisdiction to act on the 07 application while the 05 appeal was pending in this Court. Strictly speaking, as the 07 decision of the DRB was not appealed, even if it had been improperly granted it would not be before the Court for consideration. In any event, the fact that an appeal is filed does not divest a DRB of jurisdiction to consider a subsequent application, so long as that subsequent application is sufficiently different from what had been proposed in the application on appeal. Cf. 24 V.S.A. §4470(a). Moreover, Appellant appears to be under the mistaken impression that it could have litigated, in the above captioned appeal on the 05 permit, the merits of its claim that Applicant was precluded from using any spaces along the roadway right of way, based on the language in the parties deeds. This court does not have jurisdiction to decide the parties respective property rights in the roadway right of way. If Questions 5 and 6 of the Statement of Questions could not have been resolved without resolution of the property 2 rights issues, this Court would have considered placing this appeal on inactive status until the parties would have resolved their property rights issues in Windham Superior Court. The parties remain free to do so. All that was approved in the unappealed 07 permit is approval of a parking plan for the PUD as a whole. Neither the DRB nor this Court could rule on whether property rights issues preclude Applicant from using the contested spaces; that property rights question is not affected by whether or not those spaces appear in the approved parking plan, whether or not they are designated as extra spaces, or whether the former parking plan shown in the 05 permit is or is not the subject of an active appeal in Environmental Court. Accordingly, Applicant s motion to withdraw the application underlying this appeal, to vacate the DRB decision underlying this appeal, and for the dismissal of this appeal as moot, is GRANTED, concluding the above captioned appeal. Done at Berlin, Vermont, this 24th day of January, 2006. _________________________________________________ Merideth Wright Environmental Judge 3
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.