On March 4, Royalton will be voting to update its flood hazard bylaw. The bylaw was developed as a public safety measure, in large part responding to the changing weather patterns in Vermont. It has been unanimously approved by the Planning Commission.

Major changes in the bylaw include:

■ An expansion of the flood hazard area to the 500-year flood plain and the river corridor areas;

■ The creation of a Board of Adjustment to oversee the bylaw;

■ Establishing set fines for violations of the flood hazard bylaw.

Vermont has become one of the top states for disaster area declarations, all due to flooding. Climate change is increasing the severity of storms, resulting in more frequent and increasingly severe flooding events.

We know that structures in the flood hazard area contribute to more flooding in downstream areas and want to ensure that we as a community are as proactive as possible in order to decrease risk to ourselves down the road. Two new houses have been built in areas that flooded during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, and we have seen the damage caused locally to people’s homes, properties and water systems during more recent flooding.

The second most common reason for deaths in floods is dying in your own house. In Tennessee and Kentucky, states with similar topography to Vermont, 43 people died in their houses during flooding events in 2021 and 2022. While we have been lucky in Royalton so far, we may not continue to be, especially if these flooding events happen during the night rather than in daytime.

In speaking with community members, some concerns about this bylaw include questions about how often flooding will happen in our area and how this bylaw might negatively impact the property values of parcels in the flood hazard area. Continuing to build structures in flood prone areas will lead to the worsening of flood events and the endangerment of lives of people and the first responders who attempt to rescue them. Public safety is more important than financial impacts.

The state of Vermont is currently drafting rules and will be implementing statewide zoning that will restrict development in the 500-year-flood zone and the river corridor area. We feel that a town bylaw run by folks from Royalton will be better for us than a law administered by people in Montpelier. Being proactive in developing an expanded flood zone bylaw also puts our town in a position to receive additional financial support from the state when flooding does occur.

A copy of the bylaw can be found on the town website at royaltonvt.gov. If you have questions or concerns about your property, or the bylaw as a whole, we encourage you to contact the Planning Commission at royaltonplanning@gmail.com so we can discuss it further.

Please vote on March 4!

Tom “Geo” Honigford is a member of the Royalton Planning Commission and submitted this column on the commission’s behalf.