Fund Guidelines

A primary requirement for the expenditure of monies from the Fund is that such expenditure must yield a clear benefit to the City and must result from a voluntary agreement between the City or a land trust and the owner.

A number of criteria will be considered when determining whether the Fund should be used on a particular parcel of land or body of water. Since each application for use of the Fund is different, the guidelines listed below are general and are meant to bring up broad issues that would be applicable to any proposed use of the Fund.

Benefits

            Use of the Fund must result in at least one of the following benefits to the City: 

• Provision of opportunities for public access and/or public outdoor recreation for the people of Montpelier.
• Preservation or creation of agricultural enterprises, particularly food production, which allows land to remain or be placed in conservation.
• Protection of the City’s mosaic of built up and scenic, open space character.
• Preservation of natural habitats for native plants and wildlife, including wildlife corridors.
• Generating a more walkable environment throughout Montpelier through the creation of trails, greenways or other alternative transportation modes.

Criteria

Each proposal will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

 1.        Relative importance of the proposal for agriculture, forest, wildlife, scenic, recreational or natural areas.

 2.        Use and priority according to available evaluation systems, i.e. State priority conservation lands that can be found on the Agency of Natural Resources Atlas, identified wildlife corridors, wetlands and other identified natural resources (map at https://www.montpelier-vt.org/DocumentCenter/View/6629/Montpelier-Natural-Resources-Inventory-Map2_19_20), Montpelier Open Space Plan at https://www.montpelier-vt.org/DocumentCenter/View/482/Montpelier-Open-Space-Plan-Views-and-Vistas-June-12-2002-DRAFT-PDF?bidId=, etc.

 3.        Effect of proposal on adjacent land and other land in the area.

 4.        Opportunities presented by the proposal to offer or preserve significant recreational or scenic benefits to Montpelier citizens, the loss of which would detract from the quality of life in Montpelier.

 5.        Preservation of important natural areas in the community.

 6.        Imminent threat of conversion to other uses.

 7.        Project's ability to pay for itself, including possibility of private participation in conservation effort, incentive for leveraged funds, donations of easements, or bargain sales.