Charlotte’s Selectboard is embarking on a five or six month process to determine the shape of potential development in the West Village—an area that includes our downtown (post office, library, town hall, fire and rescue station, senior center) as well as town-owned open land (the Burns parcel).

   After septic capacity and future septic and water needs have been reviewed, the planning process will continue with ideas solicited from homeowners in the area and citizens throughout the town for ways to put this public resource to its best use. This is a rare opportunity to design and implement a visionary, state-of-the-art demonstration of sustainable community development. We could build a model that would inspire communities around Vermont and across the nation. The West Village (Charlotte’s downtown) could become an exciting demonstration of a community’s deliberate effort to pursue sustainable development.

   Sustainability means living in balance with natural life cycles and the “carrying capacity” of the local ecosystem so that life support systems are not depleted. Sustainable development requires more thoughtful, creative and collaborative ways of meeting our needs for food, fuel, shelter and transportation. Habits of consumption need to change. Cooperative, community-wide endeavors need to be encouraged.

   A green town center would represent this new understanding. Such a project might include some or all of these elements:

• A community garden or CSA (community-supported agriculture) farm that grows produce for local consumption. Greenhouses could be built to provide local food during the colder months.
• A small community-owned co-op that sells local foods (including those from the community garden) and crafts, and maybe some essentials so that people don’t need to drive into Shelburne or Burlington as often.
• A power-generating project, using solar and/or wind technology, that could perhaps get all town buildings off the grid.
• A transportation hub—a cozy place for carpoolers to meet up, a bus stop, a rack containing community bicycles, and perhaps an electric car recharging station (using power generated on site).
• A “living machine” (constructed wetland) for processing wastewater; this could, possibly, significantly increase the septic capacity of the area, and at the very least it would return cleaner water to the land.
 • Some affordable/senior housing, as water and septic capacity permit, and a playground/park that includes benches and picnic tables for hanging out in warm months, and an ice rink in winter. These projects would provide a focus for community life and encourage people to congregate.

   What about the cost of all this? This project should be considered a long-term investment in a sustainable future. The town could issue a bond to cover the cost of design and construction. There may well be grant money available for some of the elements. The point is, we need to start thinking about long-term sustainability and not simply short-term cost. In the long run it will cost us far more to continue depending on fossil-fuel-based transportation, heat and electricity, food imported from distant places, and an isolated suburban lifestyle that sends people scurrying to malls and other places for entertainment and some sense of community.

   A green town center is about re-localizing and rebuilding community. It is a task we ought to begin soon, while there is still time.