Rick Weston owns a seasonal camp, deep in the forests of the Green Mountains, at least according to the town of Huntington.
However, the four-bedroom, two-bathroom home would be considered a year-round residence in Bolton, on the other side of the town line just yards away.
So Weston is moving — 12 feet, to be precise.
Work to lift the house 4 feet above the ground and move it with a network of temporary rails and large rollers began last week.
By relocating his house on Happy Hollow Road, Weston can accomplish in a week what he has tried, but failed, to do through Huntington’s municipal permitting process over the past four years: get his house to be recognized as a year-round residence.
Under Huntington land use regulations, the structure can only be used for six months out of the year because it is in the woodland zoning district. The designation is intended to protect environmentally fragile locations in high elevations and maintain “unfragmented forest land and wildlife habitat,” according to the regulations.
“I grew up here. This is home,” Weston said. “But these past few years, it’s just been discouraging. It’s a nightmare. I can’t build what I’ve worked for my whole life, can’t even live in my home.”
The 67-year-old grew up in Essex but visited the house at his grandfather’s Huntington camp almost every weekend to hunt, ski and help his family build Happy Hollow Road. Since he was 12 years old, he’s been planning to build another house at the top of the property that overlooks “the nicest view in the state.”
After a career of building homes for other families across Vermont, Weston said he finally felt ready to retire and build that dream home in 2019. He just needed the money — and the health — to make it happen. Weston was diagnosed with throat cancer in the same year.
He decided to sell his existing house on his family’s Happy Hollow Road property — originally built in the late 1960s and owned by various family members and other locals since then — to fund the new construction. But the house couldn’t be sold as-is in Huntington, real estate agent Jeremy Collins said.
“No one wants to buy a house you can only live in for six months,” Collins said. He also said it’s “near-impossible” to get lenders to finance seasonal dwellings that are in areas as remote as Huntington’s woodland district.
Bolton’s forest district abuts Huntington’s woodland district. However, Bolton’s district was designed to protect high-elevation areas from “undue environmental disturbance” while still allowing for “traditional uses such as forestry, outdoor recreation and compatible low density residential development,” according to Bolton’s land-use regulations. Year-round homes are permitted in the district, Bolton’s Planning and Zoning Administrator Kelly Diglio said.
With the year-round label, Weston said he can sell his house after three years of watching it sit untouched on the market. He said the sale will give him the financial foundation he needs to build his dream home on an adjacent parcel in Bolton.
So, Weston began the process of requesting a conversion of his seasonal camp to a year-round dwelling — just like some of his Huntington neighbors have done over the years, he said.
Weston said he attended meetings, filed paperwork and “did everything they told me to do” to move his case forward in the Huntington Development Review Board — all in between 32 rounds of radiation and eight chemotherapy treatments. All along, he said, his goal was to protect his rights to his family’s land so his grandchildren could learn to appreciate Happy Hollow the same way he did.
“There was no reason not to move forward with everything,” he said. “Why shouldn’t I think I can live in my house on a road I built?”
In June 2023, the Development Review Board denied Weston’s conversion request, citing a land-use regulation passed on Town Meeting Day in March 2023 in which “conversions of seasonal dwellings to year-round dwellings are prohibited in the Woodland and Conservation Districts,” according to the board’s decision.
Weston said he wasn’t aware of the policy. When he submitted the application in January 2023, regulations had an “absence of language prohibiting” conversion in the woodland district, said Weston’s attorney, Peter Raymond, according to minutes from the May 9, 2023, board meeting.
But Huntington government officials said rules are rules.
Yves Gonnet, the zoning administrative officer in Huntington, said the conversion policy is not a new rule and merely clarified a regulation already in place — that only camps are allowed in the woodland district. Any conversions previously allowed were made by administrators who “accidentally or erroneously” issued permits, he said.
Adam Miller, Weston’s neighbor and a member of both the Huntington and Bolton development review boards, wrote in an email to VTDigger that “there is nothing unique about applying the current town zoning regulations to Mr. Weston’s seasonal camp.”
Miller said he compiled a letter of Happy Hollow residents’ concerns about how Weston’s plans would violate local regulations, which was jointly submitted by the neighbors to Bolton’s Development Review Board.
Miller recused himself from all votes involving Weston’s property in Huntington and Bolton “to avoid any apparent conflict of interest,” he said. He spoke against Weston’s construction plans during a public comment period in Huntington “much like all other members of the public who participate because they have a perspective they believe would be helpful,” Miller said.
Weston said he felt blindsided by his town government, especially Miller.
“It’s just not fair when these towns start playing God,” he said. “They’re supposed to work for the people, not against them.”
After these frustrations, Weston said, the $100,000 cost to move his house over the Bolton town line feels worth it. Late last week, the New England Building Movers started to slowly roll the house to its new location in Bolton. Weston said he’ll refurbish the house over the next three months so it can get back on the market as quickly as possible.
Then, he plans to start construction on his dream home as soon as he has the money to do so. He said he already has the approval from Bolton to begin building.
The race is on, he said, “just in case Bolton decides to change their rules, too.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Zoning in Huntington held a Vermonter back. So he moved his house to Bolton..