I have multi-generational trauma from multiple experiences with government taking of our land. Act 181, which I regard as a taking without compensation, continues a trend of abuse that spans 5 generations of my family.

My great grandfather purchased our Colchester Pond dairy farm in 1905. He didn’t put up much of a fight when the railroad expanded and took gravel from our property. He regarded it as progress and he had plenty of land. Then Velco put transmission lines through our property and again he relented.

When my great grandfather died the farm passed down to my grandfather, who continued to farm and loved what he did. But in the 1960s fervor of modernization the government took his land and flooded it to make a Colchester Pond a reservoir for the drinking water of the growing town. They forbid him to keep cows that would pollute the drinking water of the reservoir. So, without cows, he tore down the barn which he could no longer use to save money on taxes. Once the barn was gone, his house had a view of the pond they created from taking his land, and his taxes went UP!

Prior to taking his land he wanted to strip the topsoil off the area to be flooded to generate income. They denied him the ability. After completion of the reservoir, due to excess nutrients from the topsoil, the water was not fit to drink and the project was abandoned as a water source. The Barn now gone, He gave up on farming, which he loved, and moved to Burlington.

My Father, after serving in Vietnam, came home and bought the farm from his father and was determined to save it. In 1993, under duress and behind on his taxes, sold six acres of waterfront property (the former site of the barn) for peanuts after the town told him they would never let him build on it. That 6 acres is where the parking lot is now.

My dad passed away and I am raising my own family on the remnants of the farm. The Pond is now a major attraction and the town is eyeing part of our land for a future bike path.

Act 181 continues the trend of government abuse. Though we are in Tier 2, the description of tier 3 could easily fit our land. If the legislature wants to preserve 50% of Vermont by 2050, then tier 3 will expand and we are sitting ducks.

The land is precious to me and I don’t particularly want to develop, but after all the government has done to my family, the decisions about what to do with what is left of our farm should be made by us, not someone who got elected for one term, or an unelected board of technocrats.

Thank you for listening to my story.

Act 181 is an infringement of our property rights and I regard it as a taking without compensation.