In Re Appeals of Phillip Letourneau

Summary

The Supreme Court of Vermont affirmed an environmental court judgment imposing a $3,090 civil fine and a mandatory injunction requiring a landowner to remove a home addition built without a zoning permit and in violation of a 50-foot setback requirement. The court held the setback requirement constitutional, that the zoning ordinance and enabling statute prohibit expansion of noncomplying structures, that equitable estoppel did not bar enforcement, and that no discriminatory-enforcement or equal-protection violation existed, including in the denial of a jury trial. The court also clarified that the substantiality and conscious-wrongdoing determinations supporting a mandatory zoning injunction are reviewed deferentially, not de novo.