Partnership Communities

BRISTOL

Smart Growth Vermont and the Town of Bristol have been working together since 2007 on Master Plan and bylaw updates. In 2010, we began a new project to assist the Planning Commission with crafting a Town Plan that will be supported by the community and also developing new bylaw language to implement the goals of the Town Plan.  This work is made possible in part by a Municipal Planning Grant from the Department of Housing and Community Affairs

Smart Growth Vermont also worked with the Planning Commission in 2007 and 2008 to review and comment on draft rewrites of the Town Plan so as to ensure that the new plan reflects smart growth principles. Early in the process, we assisted the Planning Commission with the analysis of a town-wide survey that gathered data about community goals and priorities.  Our intern, Abby Farnham, presented an analysis and summary of the 2006 Town survey to the Commission and the public on March 18, 2008.  We also prepared a comprehensive review of the updated Bristol town plan, assessing in each section how effectively the town met its goal of incorporating smart growth principles.  Download the report to see how Bristol did! 

Smart Growth Vermont is working on a multifaceted project with the town of Burke that will help the town prepare for anticipated large-scale growth both on and off Burke Mountain.  In partnership with the Northeastern Vermont Development Association, Smart Growth Vermont is helping the town develop and implement targeted strategies for protecting scenic views, concentrating development in and around the villages, and preventing strip commercial development, among other goals.  This work is made possible in part by a Municipal Planning Grant from the Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

The town’s planning efforts are in response to a large-scale resort development planned for Burke Mountain that will add a projected 1000 new housing units to this small rural town over the next decade.  “With Ginn Corporation’s purchase of Burke Mountain, the town knows that growth is inevitable,” said Noelle MacKay, executive director of Smart Growth Vermont.  “But they are determined to be out in front of the process, guiding growth in ways that are compatible with the town’s rural character, scenic beauty, and ecological value.” We have partnered with the community since 2006.

ESSEX & JERICHO

Smart Growth Vermont launched a project in 2009 with the towns of Essex and Jericho to develop strategies for protecting the scenic views that are essential to the character of the two towns. The project focuses on views to Mount Mansfield, which dominates the skyline in both communities, as well as on scenic road corridors in general.

Scenic resources -- prominent ridgelines, open fields, and the like -- are as difficult to protect as they are to define.  The first phase of the project was a detailed and rigorous assessment of the current state of scenic resources in both towns, completed with the help of dozens of community volunteers. The details of this assessment were shared with communities in December meetings, along with an introduction to the range of options to consider. Currently, we are drafting a handbook and tools for the communities to implement.

This project is funded in part by a grant from the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization and includes technical support from the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission.

In 2009-2010, Smart Growth Vermont and Preservation Trust of Vermont were asked by Pittsford  Community Corporation (PCC), a local non-profit to help assess what community residents would most like to see on a 14 + acre property in the heart of the village that PCC is considering purchasing.  Their goal is to develop it in ways that strengthen and revitalize the village center. Smart Growth Vermont and Preservation Trust of Vermont completed focus groups, surveys and community meetings and presented these to the community. At a large community meeting to share the results in the spring of 2010 and learn from other communities how they had implemented successful community projects, there was general positive feedback on developing the property for senior housing, a cafe or restaurant, small businesses, a town green with gazebo and a community center. In the summer of 2010, PCC decided that they needed to put the fund raising for the property on hold until several key issues were addressed.

In 2007, Smart Growth Vermont was selected by the Cornwall Planning Commission to help with the development of village-specific zoning standards for Cornwall Village.  The process began with the creation, distribution and analysis of a Village landowner survey to help the Commission understand community concerns and priorities.  Responses emphasized maintaining the rural scale and historic character of the village while accommodating higher housing densities in and around the village than in the rural areas of the community. 

Based on survey results and land use analysis that Smart Growth Vermont conducted together with the Addison County Regional Planning Commission, we then drafted village zoning standards and associated review criteria that facilitate the kind of development the community said it wanted.  The Cornwall Select Board ultimately approved revisions to the town's zoning that reflects the historic scale and pattern of development in the village.

Smart Growth Vermont's partnership with the Town of Danville began in 2008 with a project  to revise the town bylaws so as to encourage the construction of new homes and businesses in and around Danville Village.  Original zoning standards in the village forced landowners to build in ways that are more appropriate for the rural countryside than for the middle of a village.  Smart Growth Vermont helped Danville identify a range of options for making its zoning bylaws more “village friendly” and developed revised bylaw language that were passed by the SelectBoard in 2009.

In 2009 and 2010, we worked on a second project to help identify what aspects of the community's rural character are most important to town residents.  Zoning in rural Danville offers landowners relatively few options for building new homes and businesses in ways that are compatible with the community's rural character.  We outlined several strategies for ensuring that Danville's working farms and forests and its natural beauty are protected as the town grows and changes.

Both projects are funded in part by Municipal Planning Grants from the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

In partnership with LandWorks, a Middlebury-based landscape architecture and planning firm, Smart Growth Vermont assisted the Town of Pownal through much of 2008 with its effort to seek growth center designation for Pownal Village and adjacent lands, including the site of the former Green Mountain Race Track. Smart Growth Vermont has since withdrawn from the project in order to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest as the organization pursues changes to the Growth Centers law at the state legislature.  LandWorks will see the project through to completion.  For more information, contact Natalie Steen at natalies@[remove this text]landworksvt.com.

In 2007 and 2008, Smart Growth Vermont worked in partnership with the Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC) and the Southern Windsor Regional Planning Commission to develop policies and implementation measures for the Town of Reading that address the ongoing fragmentation of productive forest land.  This project was partly an outgrowth of VNRC’s statewide forest fragmentation initiative and Smart Growth Vermont provided its expertise in land use planning and development regulation. In March 2008, Smart Growth Vermont staff presented their technical review of the Town’s Plan and zoning bylaws, together with options for strengthening those documents and establishing non-regulatory tools to support ongoing forest management.

In 2007, Smart Growth Vermont was asked by the Town of Waitsfield to assist with its effort to achieve growth center designation for Waitsfield Village and the adjacent Irasville Village Center.  Irasville was designated the Town’s growth center in the Town Plan in the mid-1970s and has been the focus of most of the town’s mixed-use development since that time.  We advised the Planning Commission and the Town’s consultant, PlaceSense, on a number of policy issues related to effective growth center planning.  We also helped to coordinate the designation process, assisting with the submission of a preliminary application for growth center designation to the State Planning and Coordination Group (PCG). The application, which would designate a growth center of slightly over 300 acres, including the historic Waitsfield Village, was described by the PCG as the best written and most complete application submitted to date. Submission of a final application is currently on hold as the Town works to determine sewer and water infrastructure.

Smart Growth Vermont worked with the Town of Warren from mid-2008 to mid-2009 on developing a strategy and revising the Town's bylaws to promote the construction of affordable housing.  We identified the most effective housing strategies for Warren and drafted bylaw language to implement those strategies. We also helped the Town secure state village center designation for Warren Village, a step that will help property owners in the village pay for renovations and safety upgrades to historic buildings.  It also makes Warren eligible for Vermont Neighborhood designation, another state program that provides regulatory and financial incentives for compact new residential development in and around existing community centers. 

In deciding to take on the challenge of providing housing for all, Warren’s planning commission has acknowledged that affordability isn’t just a housing issue – it is a key concern for anyone who cares about Vermont’s working rural landscape. There is a critical shortage of moderately priced homes in Vermont, and local policies and codes are sometimes part of the problem.  However, Warren’s community leaders have made a commitment to changing that and continue to work drafting bylaw updates.  This work was made possible in part by a Municipal Planning Grant from the Department of Housing and Community Affairs.