Community Planning Partnership Communities

Smart Growth Vermont is working on a multifaceted project with the town of Burke that will help the town prepare for large-scale anticipated growth.  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.” 

Smart Growth Vermont is wrapping up a project with the Town of Danville to revise its bylaws so as to encourage the construction of new homes and businesses in and around Danville Village.  The project is intended to complement the planned reconfiguration of Route 2 where it passes through the village, making it easier for businesses and homeowners to take advantage of the more pedestrian-friendly environment and enhanced village character that will be the result of the Route 2 work. 

Zoning standards in many of Vermont’s towns set minimum lot sizes and setbacks that are impossible to comply with in a traditional village center, where buildings typically sit close to each other and close to the road.  Such standards make it difficult or impossible for owners of small or irregularly shaped village parcels to develop them, and forces owners of larger parcels 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 is now developing revised bylaw language for the options that the town selected.

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. 

Smart Growth Vermont has been working with the Town of Warren since mid-2008 on developing a strategy and revising the Town's bylaws to promote the construction of affordable housing.  In partnership with Housing Vermont, a nonprofit development company that produces permanently affordable rental housing for Vermonters, Smart Growth Vermont has identified the most effective housing strategies for Warren and has begun drafting bylaw language to implement those strategies. 

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.  This work is made possible in part by a Municipal Planning Grant from the Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

Smart Growth Vermont has been working with the Bristol Planning Commission since 2007 to review and comment on a draft rewrite 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 a town-wide survey to gather 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. You can view the survey results as well as the raw data that was used to develop the analysis below.

Bristol Town Survey

Survey Raw Data

More recently, Smart Growth Vermont 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! 

The Planning Commission is now moving towards adoption of the revised plan by Australian ballot sometime this fall.  Check back for updates on the process as summer approaches.

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.

In 2007 and 2008, Smart Growth Vermont wiorked 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, with Smart Growth Vermont providing 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, asisting 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.