Vermont Division of State Buildings v. Town of Castleton Board of Adjustment

In Vermont Division of State Buildings v. Town of Castleton Board of Adjustment, 138 Vt. 250, 415 A.2d 188 (1980), in which State Buildings proposed to remodel a college dormitory into a juvenile detention facility and the Castleton ZBA denied the permit because the project failed to meet the setback requirements in the ordinance. In that case, however, the Town of Castleton was regulating the use with respect to a statutorily-authorized element, setbacks, so construction of 4409(a) was unnecessary. The Court held: Section 4409(a) specifies that municipalities may make reasonable provision for the location of such facilities by bylaw and, even if no such provisions are made, that the municipality may, nevertheless, regulate these facilities with "respect to size, height, bulk, yards, courts, setbacks, density of buildings, off-street parking and loading facilities and landscaping or screening." . . . A municipality cannot, for example, condition the granting of a landscaping permit to the submission by the public agency to the municipality's authority to regulate the location of its facility, unless "reasonable provision" has been made in the municipal bylaws concerning such location requirements. Id. at 258, 415 A.2d at 193-94.