The Northwest Vermont Project, which began in 2003, has been a collaborative effort to study growth and development in northwestern Vermont as it relates to the region’s transportation infrastructure. The over arching goals of the project were: 1. To project future growth at the local level using state-of-the-art growth modeling tools; 2. To assess municipalities’ abilities to manage growth now and in the future; 3. To develop model tools and strategies to be used by municipalities to plan for future growth in a manner that reflects local land use and transportation goals.

The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) worked with the five Regional Planning Commissions (RPCs) of Northwest Vermont on the Northwest Vermont Project (NVP). The NVP was a series of interconnected studies: 1. To assist municipalities in planning for possible transportation impacts of future growth associated with improvements to the Northwest Vermont’s transportation system and 2. To develop model tools to be used by municipalities to plan for future growth in a manner that reflects local land use and transportation goals. The Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) undertook an individual component of the NVP in close cooperation with the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization (CCMPO) and a Corridor Advisory Committee (CAC). The purpose of the project was to provide each of the municipalities with the tools and information necessary to make informed decisions regarding future transportation functionality and land-use change along US 7 and VT 116 under current and alternative policies.

The 2006 Chittenden County Regional Plan provides broad policy direction, rather than detailed requirements, for planning development in locations that sustain Chittenden County’s economic prosperity, environmental integrity and quality of life. The County’s 19 municipalities continue to make the primary, site-specific decisions that determine how this vision is realized.

This paper presents several case studies of metropolitan areas that have used regional visioning initiatives as a means of integrating long-range transportation and land use planning. Projects in Portland, Oregon; the Greater Wasatch Area of Utah; Charlottesville, Virginia; Sacramento, California; and Oregon’s Southern Willamette Valley are described, focusing on the public engagement process, scenario development and evaluation, and implementation through long-range transportation plans and other actions. The paper concludes with an analysis of common features and limitations of this approach, and the extent to which it may be transferable to Chittenden County, Vermont.

Growth and development put pressures on Vermont agriculture. This is especially true in Chittenden County. Although new developments consume land that was previously farmed, agriculture continues to play an important role in the region’s character and economy. In order to understand local agricultural decisions, it is important to understand farmers perceptions of how the community, as well as the economy, impacts them.

Westford Community study for the enhancement of the Town Common Area, funded by Transportation for Livable Communities (TLC) grant from the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization (CCMPO).

Presentation on recommendations of the Housing Targets Task Force.

In 2001, the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission invited housing experts and business and community leaders to serve on the Chittenden County Housing Task Force (2001 Task Force) to identify strategies to address this crisis. It was found that the major cause of the County housing crisis is the failure of the supply of housing to keep pace with the housing demand resulting from the County expanding economy. This group also recommended that CCRPC assemble representatives of its 19 municipalities in order to build greater regional collaboration in addressing housing shortages.

To initiate the Regional Build-out Analysis project, Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) staff and an RBA Steering Committee prepared: (1) a draft methodology, (2) a preliminary landscape suitability analysis in which partial and prohibitive constraints (wetlands, prime agricultural soils, steep slopes, etc.) are applied to determine a buildable land area, and (3) a zoning analysis in which local zoning and other land use regulations determine the residential and non-residential development potential of the buildable land area.

Act 200 was a landmark growth management law both in Vermont and in national planning history. It sought to fill the planning gap left in Act 250 to encourage growth decisions to take place through public, community-wide consensus, ahead of the project-by-project permit process. Fifteen years after its passage, the notable gap is state agency coordination and planning a piece of the law that faded away early in its implementation.