LYNDONVILLE- The manager of the NorthCountry Credit Union Bank located at Lyndonville’s 854 Center Street wants to expand its room right next door to 155 South Street. This has not been a smooth process, because this area is private property for residential purposes, not for marketing. In order to use this land for commercial purposes, the bank needs to rezone it.
In order to make this legal, an application must be submitted according to the official document “Overview of 24 v.s.a. § 444: Preparation of Bylaws and Regulatory Tools; Amendment or Repeal”. The bank submitted an application to the Lyndon Selectboard, which begins the process. After finishing the preparations, a report, and a public hearing notice, the Lyndon Selectboard held a public meeting on October 16th to talk about the their first public hearing of zoning. The bank wants to get the support to let the zoning change pass.
Julie Longfellow, the director of Creative & Branding of NorthCountry Bank, gave more detailed information about zoning changes. She talked about the property’s history of 155 South Street that they want to expand into. This residential purpose land first went up for sale in the spring of 2008, and North Country Bank purchased this land for $170,000. However, because of the land being restricted to residential purposes, the bank could not use this area for their business. “It’s currently a residential lot, so although we own it, we can’t use it. For NorthCountry to use the lot, it would need to become a commercial lot,” Longfellow said.
“Our Lyndonville location has experienced strong growth for many years, and is exceeding its capacity.” This is the main reason that why the bank wants to expand into the South Street lot. “We’ll use the extra space to add more offices and parking,” Longfellow said. The Bank has been in downtown Lyndonville for more than 25 years. They hope their expansion will remain committed to this area, and keep promoting economic development, and bring safe to the communities.
In their first public hearing meeting, a resident of Lyndonville Mike Schlesinger expressed same idea about the bank's expansion. Schlesinger: "With having Cumberland Farms in the nearby vacinity to it, it creates as much of a traffic problem as anything else. I'm hoping that making this a commercial lot, letting the bank expand, will aleviate some of the traffic problems that are there now." The community now shows the support to this rezoning.
Lyndon’s Planning Director and Zoning Administrator, Annie McLean, says that if NorthCountry wants to apply a zoning change and get approve, it should hold at least one public hearing within the municipality after public notice. “If a proposed bylaw was supported by a petition signed by five percent of the voters, the bank must promptly submit the bylaw, with changes only to correct technical deficiencies, to the Selectboard, together with any recommendation or opinion it considers appropriate,” said McLean.
If the lot is rezoned, NorthCountry Bank’s next step would be to present a plan to their Planning Commission. According to Longfellow, “Once a plan is approved, we would create a budget to support the project.” This is NorthCountry Bank’s second time to apply for expansion.