East Charlotte Work Group Tasks Defined, Volunteers Needed
by Edd Merritt,
June 3, 2010, page 5.....

A small, but interested group met at the Grange Hall last Thursday, May 27, to discuss a proposal for moving ahead on the development of a planning process for East Charlotte. A five-member task force – Jennifer Adsit, Trina Bianchi, Matt Hough, Heather Manning and Edd Merritt – presented its ideas on the process to the larger group. They proposed forming four work groups, each assigned action steps that grew out of previous public meetings and synthesized by consultant David Raphael.
The four groups are 1) Patterns of the Village and Transitions, 2) Natural Resources, 3) Uses and 4) Transportation.
Trina Bianchi shared results of the recent survey of town residents, to which she received 80 responses. Of those responding, 84 percent said they considered themselves residents of East Charlotte, and 72 percent felt a planning process now would yield valuable information. Between one-half and two-thirds identified the development of walking or bike paths, a village green, a café/pub and conservation of open space as important actions. Other priorities included creating a master plan for the village and forming a steering committee for the process itself (It was suggested at the meeting that “coordinating” may be a more appropriate term than “steering”.) Defining the village limits was an important goal as well as mapping and understanding natural resources of the area. The list also included exploring the possibility of commercial establishments, calming road traffic, identifying ways to create agriculture-based jobs, providing for future housing, utilizing the Grange Hall to its potential, and determining the “village gateway.” (Anyone wishing to see the numerical results of the survey plus comments should contact Trina at alechemy@gmavt.net.)
Audience members raised questions about how the work groups would operate. Carrie Spear asked, “Why not wait until specific issues arise and deal with them one by one?”
Planning Commission Chair Jeff McDonald said he felt the findings and recommendations would be valuable in reviewing the Town Plan, which comes up for renewal in 2013. Town Planner Dean Bloch said that discussion of revisions to the plan should begin next year, given the lengthy public hearing process they undergo. He felt it was not too early to start gathering input.
The first step in the process would create work groups and their charges. Defining the limits of the “village” and determining the “village gateway” fell under Group 1; Group 2 would map and understand the area’s natural resources; Group 3 contained the most action items – conducting a local census of people and buildings, exploring other uses of existing buildings, exploring the possibility of commercial establishments, providing for future housing, defining and exploring performance zoning, utilizing the Grange Hall to its full potential, and creating an investment entity or development body; Group 4 included creating local walking and bike paths and calming traffic.
Two of the action items previously identified fell outside any particular work group. These were formation of a coordinating committee to oversee the process and serve as liaison with the town governing bodies and creation of a conceptual master plan that summarized the accomplishments of the work groups and fed them into the Town Plan.
The meeting closed with a charge to find individuals willing to serve on each of the working groups. The temporary task force hopes to identify interested volunteers as soon as possible, so they can begin meeting this summer and report to the public in the fall.
Anyone interested in serving on a work group is encouraged to contact Dean Bloch in Town Hall or a member of the task force: Jennifer Adsit at LightFarm@gmavt.net, Trina Bianchi at alchemy@gmavt.net, Matt Hough at mjstonemasonry@gmavt.net, Heather Manning at hmanningservices@aol.com or Edd Merritt at emerritt@gmavt.net.