DUMMERSTON — The Selectboard on Sept. 4 followed suit with their counterparts in Putney in approving a Planning Commission request for a resolution to pursue a $15,000 grant toward a 2014 zoning study of the Interstate 91 Exit 4 area.
The study, if funded by the state's Department of Economic, Housing and Community Development, would pay for an outside planing consultant to investigate about a mile around Exit 4, identify issues, generate a public hearing to discuss the issues, and fund a written report.
Planning Commission Vice-Chair Richard Cogliano spoke to the Selectboard about the Municipal Planning Grant, explaining that Putney would write and administer the grant, and that he would be project liaison, “to make sure it's not just Putney's interest being served, but ours also.”
No local money will be needed. The Selectboard approved the request unanimously, as did Putney's, when Phillip Bannister, chair of that town's planning commission and development review boards, sought support for the resolution Aug. 28.
According to Cogliano, the study will give planners in both towns a clearer sense of the best use of land in the Route 5 corridor.
“Especially where we're going from Dummerston and transitioning to Putney Village: How do we best do that? Right now in our current zoning, its a mishmash of rural commercial, commercial light industrial, and rural residential,” Cogliano said.
“In the upcoming zoning bylaw rewrite, we're looking at cutting back on the rural commercial and the commercial light industrial, but also keeping some of that in that area. What's good there? What can we do there?” he asked rhetorically.
Cogliano said he, Bannister, and other officials from both towns had discussed demand for residential housing in town, especially clustered apartment-style housing; commercial development; infrastructure - for example, extending Putney's municipal water system further into Dummerston, where it might support “senior housing or some project like that;” as well as transportation, conservation, and zoning.
“Can we bring our zoning more into conformance with theirs? Can they bring theirs more into conformance with ours? That way there's not this stark contrast between the two towns,” he said.