Vermont § 2481 - Establishment; change of limits

§ 2481. Establishment; change of limits

• (a) Upon application in writing of 20 or more freeholders or voters of a proposed fire
  district, the selectboard, after a duly warned public hearing, may establish such
  proposed fire district and define its limits. Such application shall contain a list
  of the powers mentioned in sections 2601 and 2603 of this title that the proposed district shall have and the district shall not have any of the
  other powers mentioned in these sections. Fire districts thus created shall be named
  by number in the order of their establishment. The selectboard shall file a certificate
  of its doings in the office of the town clerk for record. The selectboard may change
  the limits of a fire district upon a similar application and in like manner subject
  to the approval by the fire district at the annual or a special meeting of the fire
  district duly warned but any change in limits of a fire district may take place only
  with the consent of the majority of the landowners newly included within or excluded
  from those boundaries by that alteration. A record of any alteration of fire district
  boundaries shall be made by the town clerk. Only property contiguous to the fire district
  shall be the subject of an expansion of the boundaries of a fire district. For purposes
  of this subsection, a “public hearing” shall be a meeting of the legislative body
  of a town or of a fire district for the duly warned purpose of establishing or changing
  the limits of a fire district. Public notice for a public hearing required by this
  subsection shall be given not less than 15 days prior to the date of the public hearing
  by: (1) the publication of the date, place, and purpose of the hearing in a newspaper of general
  circulation in the municipality affected; and (2) the posting of the same information in one or more public places within the municipality. (b) If a petition signed by five percent of the legal voters of the town objecting to
  the proposed establishment or change of limits of the fire district is presented to
  the town clerk within 30 days of the date of posting and publication of the notice
  required by subsection (a) of this section, the selectboard shall cause the question
  of whether the town shall establish or change the limits of the fire district to be
  considered at a special or annual meeting called for that purpose. After the meeting,
  the fire district shall be established or the limits changed unless a majority of
  the voters of the town present and voting vote to disapprove of such establishment
  or change of limits. If a petition signed by five percent of the legal voters of a
  town objecting to a selectboard decision denying the establishment or the change of
  limits of a fire district is presented to the town clerk within 30 days of the selectboard
  decision, the selectboard shall cause the question of whether the town shall establish
  or change the limits of the fire district to be considered at a special or annual
  meeting called for that purpose. (Amended 1993 No. 164 (Adj. Sess.) § 13; 2003, No. 93 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)