Title 24APPENDIX, MUNICIPAL CHARTERS

§ 51. Zoning Officer; appointment The Town Zoning Officer, the “administrative officer” as described in 24 V.S.A. § 4448, shall be appointed by the Selectboard and shall serve in that office for three years and until a successor is appointed and qualified. The Zoning Officer may …

§ 52. Applicability of State law to municipal land use matters All matters pertaining to zoning, land subdivision, and municipal or regional plans shall be exclusively controlled by State law, except as otherwise specifically provided in this charter, the Town Plan, or the Town’s…

§ 53. Continuation of existing land use regulations (a) The zoning ordinance adopted by the Town of Lyndon on August 20, 1964, and as thereafter amended from time to time through and including July 1, 2023, is hereby ratified and approved as the zoning ordinance of the Town of Ly…

§ 54. Development Review Board and Planning Commission; meeting minutes Copies of the minutes of the Development Review Board and of the Planning Commission shall be filed and kept in the Town Clerk’s office in separate books provided for that purpose, and they shall be available…

§ 61. Fiscal year The Town’s fiscal year shall commence on the first day of January. (Added 2023, No. M-14, § 2, eff. July 1, 2023.)

§ 62. Preparation and submission of budget At least 30 days before the date of the annual Town meeting, the Selectboard shall adopt a proposed budget. The budget shall contain: (1) an estimate of the financial condition of the Town as of the end of the fiscal year and as of the d…

§ 64. Publication of notice of proposed budget At least 10 days before the annual Town meeting, the Selectboard shall publish a notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the Town stating the amount of money that the Town anticipates must be raised by taxes and to be voted a…

§ 65. Printing the budget and warning for Town meeting The proposed budget in its final form and the warning for the annual Town meeting shall be printed and made available to the legal voters of the Town not less than 10 days prior to the meeting. (Added 2023, No. M-14, § 2, eff…

§ 66. Savings clause The failure to perform any of the duties specified in this subchapter, or the failure to perform any of the duties within the time limits specified in this subchapter, shall not invalidate any action taken at a properly warned annual Town meeting. (Added 2023…

§ 67. Amount to be raised by property taxes After passage of the budget at the annual Town meeting, the Selectboard shall determine the amount of money to be raised by property taxes. That amount shall constitute the amount of the levy for the purposes of the Town in the correspo…

§ 68. Borrowing money (a) The incurring of bonded debt, the issuing of bonds, the making of temporary loans in anticipation of bond sales, and all other matters pertaining to bonded indebtedness shall be controlled by 24 V.S.A. chapter 53 or other applicable State law. (b) The Se…

§ 69. Taxes (a) Taxes on real property shall be paid at the times and in the installments, if any, that are voted at the annual Town meeting. (b) Interest and penalties on unpaid taxes shall be levied in the maximum amounts allowed under State law. (Added 2023, No. M-14, § 2, eff…

§ 70. Investment of Town funds (a) The Town may invest money that has been raised in a current year for the payment of that current year’s operating expenses in the following identified instruments and in no other instruments whatsoever: (1) obligations of the United States, its …

§ 81. Lyndon Electric Department; composition (a) There shall be established the Town of Lyndon Electric Department, which shall initially serve the same area as the Village of Lyndonville Electric Department. (b) The Board of Electric Commissioners shall be composed of three com…

§ 82. Board of Electric Commissioners; authority (a) The Lyndon Electric Commissioners shall serve as electric commissioners under 30 V.S.A. §§ 2915 and 2916. (b) The Board of Electric Commissioners shall have authority to construct, operate, maintain, and remove an electric ligh…

§ 83. Board of Electric Commissioners; duties (a) The Board of Electric Commissioners shall administer its responsibilities in the Town of Lyndon Electric Department. The Town of Lyndon Electric Department shall have its own professional management, staff, plan, equipment, and en…

§ 84. Electric Department; assets, finances, and indebtedness (a) The Town of Lyndon Electric Department shall inherit all of the assets, accounts, and liabilities of the Village of Lyndonville Electric Department, subject to the management of the Board of Electric Commissioners …

§ 91. Separability If any provision of this charter is determined to be invalid, no other provision of this charter shall be affected by that determination. If the particular application of any of the provisions of this charter to any person or set of circumstances is determined …

§ 92. Continuation in office or employment Except as may expressly or implicitly be otherwise provided by this charter, at the time this charter takes effect all officers of the Town of Lyndon and all employees of the Town and the former Village of Lyndonville shall continue in s…

§ 93. Pending matters All past, present, and future rights, claims, actions, orders, contracts, and legal or administrative proceedings, now in progress or that arise in the future, choate and inchoate, that involve or affect the Town of Lyndon or the former Village of Lyndonvill…

§ 94. Continuation of municipal laws All ordinances, resolutions, orders, and regulations of the Town of Lyndon and the former Village of Lyndonville that are in force when this charter becomes fully effective shall remain in full force and effect, excepting only those ordinances…

§ 95. Copies of the charter The original copy of this charter shall be kept by the Town Clerk at the Clerk’s office. Two copies of this charter shall be kept at all times at the Cobleigh Library. The charter shall be available for inspection and copying by any member of the publi…

§ 96. Amendment of charter This charter may be amended pursuant to and by the procedures of State law. (Added 2023, No. M-14, § 2, eff. July 1, 2023.)

§ 97. Reference to State law Any reference in this charter to a specific State law or to State law generally shall include the statute as it may be subsequently amended or renumbered and any statute substituted for that statute and having similar subject matter. (Added 2023, No. …

§ 101. Corporate existence retained The inhabitants of the Town of Middlebury, within the limits as now established, shall be a municipal corporation by the name of the Town of Middlebury.

§ 102. General law; application Except when changed, enlarged, or modified by the provisions of this charter, or by any legal regulation or ordinance of the Town of Middlebury, all provisions of the statutes of the State of Vermont relating to municipalities shall apply to the To…

§ 103. Powers of the Town (a) The Town of Middlebury shall have all the powers granted to towns and municipal corporations by the Constitution and laws of this State and this charter, together with all the implied powers necessary to carry into execution all the powers granted; i…

§ 104. Additional powers The general grant of authority in section 103 of this charter shall include the following: (1) To adopt and enforce ordinances relating to the installation of new water lines, new sewer lines, and equipment necessary for their operation, requiring the ins…

§ 105. Reservation of powers to the Town Nothing in this charter shall be construed to in any way limit the powers and functions conferred on the Town of Middlebury and the Selectboard of said Town by general or special enactments of State statutes or regulations in force or effe…

§ 106. Ordinances; penalties for breach thereof (a) A Town ordinance may provide: (1) for a fine in an amount not greater than $1,000.00; and (2) that each week a violation continues shall constitute a separate offense. A violation of a Town ordinance shall be classified as a mis…

§ 107. Ordinances; adoption by Selectboard (a) If the Selectboard desires to adopt an ordinance, they shall cause it to be entered in the official record kept of their proceedings, and thereafter, they shall adopt it subject to final approval after the public hearing as hereafter…

§ 108. Referendum (a) All Town ordinances, except as specified in section 110 of this charter, may be repealed by vote of the Town as follows: A petition signed by not less than 10 percent of the registered voters shall be filed with the Town Clerk requesting a vote on the questi…

§ 109. Initiative Any lawful ordinance may be enacted by vote of the Town as follows: A petition signed by not less than five percent of the registered voters shall be filed with the Town Clerk requesting enactment of the ordinance and accompanied by the text thereof. The Selectb…

§ 110. Nonapplicability to zoning and subdivision (a) The provisions of sections 107, 108, and 109 of this charter shall not apply to the enactment, amendment, or repeal of any zoning ordinance or zoning bylaw; any land subdivision ordinance or land subdivision bylaw; nor to the …

§ 1101. Applicability of State law to zoning and planning The Zoning Administrator under any Middlebury zoning ordinance or bylaw shall be appointed annually by the Selectboard after the annual meeting and shall serve for one year or until his or oher successor is appointed and q…

§ 1102. Ratification of present zoning ordinance Except as hereinafter provided, the zoning ordinance of the Town of Middlebury adopted 5 March 1968, as amended, is hereby ratified and approved, subject to provisions of 24 V.S.A. chapter 91.

§ 1103. Ratification of subdivision regulations The subdivision regulations of the Town of Middlebury adopted on 14 June 1966, as amended, are hereby ratified and approved, subject to provisions of 24 V.S.A. chapter 91.

§ 1104. Minutes (a) Copies of the minutes of the Zoning Board of Adjustment or the Middlebury Planning Commission, or portions thereof, shall be made available to any member of the public upon request to the Town Manager and at cost. (b) Copies of the minutes of the Zoning Board …

§ 111. Authority of police officers The police officers of the Town shall have the same powers throughout the State with respect to criminal matters, and the enforcement of the laws relating thereto, as they have within the Town.

§ 1301. Fiscal year This fiscal year shall commence on the first day of January and end on the last day of December, unless the Town, at its annual meeting, shall determine otherwise. If the Town votes another fiscal year, it shall specify the procedure for transition, including …

§ 1302. Preparation and submission (a) The Town Manager, at least 60 days before the date of the regular annual Town meeting, shall submit to the Selectboard a budget that, except as required by law or this charter, shall be in such form as the Manager deems desirable or the Sele…

§ 1303. Saving clause Failure to perform any of the duties specified in section 1302 of this charter, or failure to perform any of such duties within the time limits above specified, shall not invalidate any action taken at a properly warned annual meeting.

§ 1304. Appropriations The Town at the annual meeting shall adopt a budget that shall include the proposed expenditure of each department for the coming fiscal year, and adoption of a budget at the annual meeting shall be deemed an appropriation to each department of the sum allo…

§ 1305. Amount to be raised by taxation (a) Upon passage of the budget by the annual Town meeting, the amounts stated therein as the amount to be raised by property taxes shall constitute a determination of the amount of the levy for the purposes of the Town in the corresponding …

§ 1306. Budget limitations; borrowing (a) The incurring of bonded indebtedness, the issuing of bonds, the making of temporary loans in anticipation of bond sales, and all other matters pertaining to bonded indebtedness shall be controlled by 24 V.S.A. chapter 53 or such State sta…

§ 1307. Transfers of appropriations At any time during the fiscal year, the Manager may transfer part or all of any unused appropriation balance among programs within a department, office, or agency. Upon written request by the Manager, the Selectboard may by resolution transfer …