Flood Information

Zoning & Floodplain Administrator

Kristen Leahy
802-472-1686
zoning.administrator@hardwickvt.gov

Fall 2026 Office Hours

Monday – 11 am to 1 pm Tuesday – 8:30 am to 2 pm Wednesday – 9:30 am to 2 pm Thursday – 8:30 am to 2 pm Friday – By Appointment Saturday – By Appointment *The Zoning Office will be closed from 11/6/26 to 12/6/26* *for medical leave.*
Outside of daily stated hours, by appointment.

FLOOD RELATED ZONING REGULATIONS

Unified Development Bylaws with integrated Flood Hazard Area Overlay and River Corridor Overlay – effective April 9, 2026

Understanding Floodplains, Floodways, and River Corridors (2025)

HISTORIC STRUCTURES IN THE FLOODPLAIN

Guidelines on Flood Adaptation for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings – 2021

Guidelines for Reducing Flood Risk to Residential Buildings that cannot be elevated – 2015

AFTER A FLOOD

Prioritize Your Health and Safety – 2024 (Neighbor to Neighbor)

Mental Health Resources for Flood Recovery – 2024 (The Vermont Department of Mental Health)

Guide for Cleaning up Mold After a Flood – 2015 (FEMA)

Four Ways to Reduce Flood Insurance Costs (FEMA)

Flood Resistant Materials for Rebuilding After a Flood – 2024 (State of Vermont)

Repairing Your Flooded Home – 2010 (FEMA)

Protecting Building Utility Systems from Flood Damage – 2017 (FEMA)

Flood Damage Resistant Materials – 2008 (FEMA)

Post Flooding Technical Assistance Toolkit for Agriculture – 2024 (State of Vermont)

FLOOD RELATED PLANNING DOCUMENTS

Understanding Flood Storage and Floodplain Restoration (2025)

Lamoille River Tactical Basin Plan – 2021

Lamoille River Tactical Basin Plan – Story map – please note that this link takes you away from our website to a story map – Lamoille River Tactical Basin Plan Overview

Basin 7 Lamoille Assessment Report -2016

A Strategy to Protect Communities and Ensure Clean Water by Mike Kline – 2016

Notes from the Draft Tactical Basin Plan – 2016

Upper Lamoille River Geomorphic Assessment – 2009

River Recovery in the Wake of Large Floods – 2024 (Jordan Fields at Trout Unlimited) (YouTube Video)

LAMOILLE RIVER and COOPER BROOK HYDRAULIC STUDY – SLR

Funding provided by the Economic Development Administration (through Lamoille County Planning Commission) – EDA grant.

Presentation Slides from SLR – December 3, 2025 at Hardwick

Overview of next steps from the study – 12/18/25 – created for the Select Board

HCTV video of the presentation – recording was inadvertently damaged. No video will follow

BRIDGE 31 – EAST HARDWICK/GREENSBORO BEND

Bridge 31 Community Survey Overview – Created for the Hardwick Select Board – 3-9-26

Bridge 31 – photographs from the impacts prior to demolition in April 2024

Engineering Reviews – To be added – Verdantas

JACKSON DAM

Jackson Dam Memo from SLR – 3-13-26

Power Point Slides from SLR for 3-26-26 meeting

Act 250 Documents for the Ice Breakers

Associated Documents for the 2-27-26 Memo

Who Gives a Dam?! – Understanding the Difference Between Flood Control Dams and Run-of-River Dams (2025)

Hardwick Lake Dam 2019 Visual Inspection

Hardwick Lake Today and Tomorrow by the Northern Rivers Land Trust – 2013

Report on the Jackson Bridge Dam by the Vermont Natural Resources Council – 2001

Hardwick Lake Dam 2024 Visual Inspection

From the Watershed: Five Collected Articles based on the SLR Jackson Dam Memo

ADDITIONAL DAMS IN THE LAMOILLE WATERSHED NEAR HARDWICK

EAP for East Long Pond, Nichols Pond and Mackville Pond – 2012

EAP for Mackville Pond Dam – 2016

Mackville Dam 2022 Visual Inspection

East Long Pond Dam 2022 Visual Inspection

Nichols Dam 2023 Visual Inspection

Ripple Effects – Watershed Forum in 2025 and 2026

Ripple Effects 2025

Ripple Effects is Hardwick’s annual public watershed education series, bringing together scientists, practitioners, and community members to better understand how water moves through our landscape and what that means for flooding, erosion, natural systems, and community resilience.

The 2025 series explored several of the questions that came up repeatedly in Hardwick following the floods of 2023 and 2024, including dredging, beavers and natural infrastructure, dams and river connectivity, and the relationship between droughts, floods, and a changing climate.

Dredging Rivers

September 3, 2025

Roy Schiff of SLR International Corporation and Shayne Jaquith of The Nature Conservancy discussed sediment movement, floodplains, river corridors, and the role and limitations of dredging as a river management strategy.

Resources:

Watch the HCTV recording: HCTV video link

SLR Slides

The Nature Conservancy Slides

Understanding Flood Storage and Floodplain Restoration

Understanding Floodplains, Floodways, and River Corridors

Dredging Makes Floods More Dangerous

Beavers and Natural Infrastructure

September 10, 2025

Tyler Brown of Vermont Fish and Wildlife, Meg Carter of the NorthWoods Stewardship Center, and Erin Rodgers of Trout Unlimited discussed the role beavers can play in watershed health and natural infrastructure, along with practical approaches for managing conflicts between beavers and people.

Resources:

Watch the HCTV recording: HCTV video link

Beavers and Natural Infrastructure Slides

Beaver FAQ

BMP – Beaver Conflicts Factsheet

BMP – Beaver and Human Conflicts Factsheet

Dam Removal & Rivers

September 24, 2025

Karina Dailey of Vermont Natural Resources Council and Kassia Randzio of Vermont River Conservancy discussed how dams affect rivers, the differences between types of dams, river connectivity, and what happens when dams are removed.

Resources:.

Watch the HCTV recording: HCTV video link

Dam Removal and Rivers Presentation Slides

Who Gives a Dam?! – Understanding the Difference Between Flood Control Dams and Run-of-River Dams (2025)

The Four Dimensions of River Connectivity

How a Dam Affects a River

Let Them Flow

Droughts and Floods: Climatology

October 1, 2025

Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and Vermont State Climatologist, discussed drought, flooding, precipitation, and the importance of community observations in understanding changing conditions across Vermont.

Resources:

HCTV recording was not able to be completed.

Here is the link to CMOR:

https://droughtimpacts.unl.edu/tools/conditionmonitoringobservations.aspx

To join the CoCoRaHS precipitation observing program, please have folks send a note to Seth Kutikoff at the National Weather Service Burlington Seth.Kutikoff@noaa.gov

Lessons Learned from 14 Years of Strategic Wood Addition in
Northeastern Vermont

August 2026

Jud Kratzer discussed the use of strategic wood addition to help restore natural river processes. The program looked at how carefully placed trees and large woody material can improve habitat, influence water and sediment movement, reduce erosion in some locations, and help streams reconnect with their floodplains.

The discussion also covered how sites are evaluated, where this approach may or may not be appropriate, and how projects are designed with river function, infrastructure, and public safety in mind.

Resources:

HCTV recording – Available Now! September 14, 2026

Presentation slides from the 8-26 presentation

Additional resources – Vermont Strategic Wood Addition Handbook

Ripple Effects 2026: How Water Moves Through Our Landscape

The 2026 series followed water through the watershed, beginning with hillsides, moving through wetlands, and ending in rivers.

When Hillsides Move: Landslides and the Start of the Watershed Story

September 9, 2026

Emma Myrick and Ben DeJong of the Vermont Geological Survey discussed how geology, soils, drainage, and heavy rainfall contribute to landslides, what we are learning about landslide risk in Vermont, and how material moving from hillsides becomes part of the larger watershed system.

Resources:
Recording

Presentation and/or supporting materials: Presentation Slides from Emma Myrick – 9-9-26

Landslide Inventory of Caledonia County, Vermont – June 30, 2021 by George Springston

Holding Water: Wetlands, Floodplains and Natural Flood Storage

September 16, 2026

Wetland Scientist Lauren Sopher, Floodplain Manager Alexis Nevins, and River Scientist Sacha Pealer explored how wetlands store and slow water, improve water quality, provide habitat, and connect with our water bodies and floodplains.

Resources:
Recording

Presentation and/or supporting materials

Where the River Carries It: Sediment, Gravel, and the Dredging Question

September 23, 2026

River Scientist Staci Pomeroy and River Engineer Evan Fitzgerald discussed how rivers move sediment and gravel, why material accumulates where it does, how sediment affects channel and flood behavior, and the role and limitations of dredging as a river management tool.

Resources:
Recording
Presentation and/or supporting materials

About Ripple Effects

Ripple Effects is intended to help residents better understand the natural systems behind many of the issues Hardwick is working through following recent floods. Rather than looking at flooding only where the water ends up, the series looks across the watershed at how water, sediment, land, and rivers interact.

Ripple Effects 2026 was presented by the Town of Hardwick, Jeudevine Memorial Library, Hardwick Community Television, and Caledonia County Natural Resources Conservation District.

FLOOD RESILIENCE PROJECTS

Town of Hardwick – Flood Recovery and Resilience Update
Understanding Our Five Neighborhood Approach

As Hardwick continues to recover from the July and December 2023 and July 2024 flood events, the Resilience & Adaptation Office has adopted a five-neighborhood approach to guide response, recovery, and future resilience investments. This method recognizes that different areas of town face different risks and levels of engagement and allows us to better match our time, capacity, and available funding to each area’s unique needs.

The five neighborhoods currently include:

East Hardwick Village Center
Granite Street Historic District and Cooper Brook Area
Vermont Route 14 South Corridor
Wolcott Street and Commercial District
North Main, Mill Street, and Core Downtown

This structure helps ensure that less vocal or more dispersed areas are not overlooked and resources are distributed in a way that reflects both the severity of flood impacts and the realities of community communication and capacity. This approach also allows the Town to align engineering, land use decisions, emergency response, and community engagement within the same geographic frame, improving coordination while respecting limited municipal capacity.

TOWN-WIDE INITIATIVES (updated 6/19/26)

*EDA grant for Flood Models of the Lamoille River and the Cooper Brook. SLR International Incorporated recently concluded the modeling work and is finishing the analysis. Two presentations on the Lamoille River were held on December 3, 2025. A presentation on the Cooper Brook was held on June 10, 2026

*The Hardwick Plan – 2026 has been adopted and includes a Volunteer Amendment with four local categories: Emergency Volunteer Mobilization, Emergency Communications, Emergency Shelter, and the Supply and Support Center. This local management plan provides guidance to each component of the community, including businesses, farms, and residences.

*Hardwick Neighbor to Neighbor Supply and Support Center is a sustainable and ready-to-go element of emergency response.

*The Town Flood Resilience Website pages at Hardwickvt.gov have been updated and have more information for the public.

*The Hardwick Unified Development Bylaws were updated in September 2024 and the Flood Hazard Area Overlay rules now match the requirements from the State of Vermont and FEMA and will be ready for the anticipated update to the Floodplain maps.

*The Hardwick Unified Development Bylaws were updated in 2026 with the addition of a River Corridor Overlay to further improve hazard mitigation funding matches and advance conversation around erosion-impacted properties.

*Six bridges have engineering under way for permanent replacements/upgrades.

*Eleven damaged roads will have updated culverts by the end of 2026. Additional mitigation projects are ongoing on all roads in town.

*The expanded Emergency Alert notification system (TextMyGov) and VT Alert system have been implemented.

*High-water Mark Documentation Project documenting July 2023, December 2023, and July 2024 flood elevations across multiple neighborhoods to support public education, engineering calibration, and future mitigation design.

*Atkins Neighborhood Conversation Series (Summer 2026) focuses on floodplain processes, insurance, mitigation options, and household-scale resilience strategies.

*Emergency Volunteer Training Series (Winter-Spring 2026) aligned with the Volunteer Amendment to the Hardwick Plan, including communications, supply center operations, and neighborhood-based response roles.

*Neighborhood-Based Resilience Coordination piloted through Granite Street Neighbors and extended to other impacted areas to strengthen communication, preparedness, and recovery capacity.

*Historic Flood Documentation and Archival Coordination has occurred in partnership with the Hardwick Historical Society to support public understanding of long-term flood patterns and risk.

*Coordinated sequencing of buyouts, infrastructure upgrades, and floodplain restoration has been designed to avoid isolated investments and maximize cumulative risk reduction.

*Lamoille River Watershed Forum in September will feature presentations on Landslides, Wetlands, and Sediment. An additional presentation is scheduled for August 26 with Jud Kratzer – Strategic Wood Addition.

*Former Buyout Property Planning and Stewardship Framework acknowledged by the Select Board as the Town’s guiding approach for evaluating, maintaining, planning, and seeking funding for former buyout properties.

Neighborhood priorities are sequenced based on flood impact severity, readiness of property owners, availability of matching funds, and the Town’s capacity to advance projects responsibly and effectively.