VPA Spring Workshop 2016 

The Future of Rural Vermont: Challenges & Choices - Join your colleagues in Springfield to learn about new research on land use trends across the state, and explore what it might mean to achieve Vermont's goal of compact settlements surrounded by working lands. Act 250 criterion 9(L), rural development success stories, Springfield walking tour!

** AICP credits approved - event #9102044 **

Program/Agenda:

8:30am

• Arrival/Registration

9am - 10:45am

• Welcome
• Morning Session 1 - VT land use trends

11am - Noon

• Morning Session 2 - Strip development & Act 250 criterion 9(L)

Noon - 1pm

• Lunch

1pm - 2pm

• Rural Vermont success stories

2pm - 3pm

• Walking tour of downtown Springfield

Morning Session 1 - Is Vermont Meeting its Land Use Goals?

Vermont’s primary land use goal is to ‘maintain a historic settlement pattern of compact village and urban centers separated by rural countryside.’ Are we achieving this goal? How do we measure progress towards it? This session will look at new research trying to answer these questions in addition to exploring land use trends across the state. The speakers will also discuss new data and technologies, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), that can help us get a clearer picture of land use and land cover.

• John Adams - Planning Coordinator, State of Vermont, Department of Housing & Community Development.
• Kate McCarthy - Sustainable Communities Program Director, VT Natural Resources Council.
• Jarlath O'Neil Dunne - Director, University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Laboratory.

Morning Session 2 - Act 250 Criterion 9L, Preventing Strip Development

Discussion on the most significant update to Act 250 in decades, Criterion 9(L). Panelists will break down the criterion and discuss how it has been applied and what it means for future development.

• Jon Groveman - Policy and Water Program Director, VT Natural Resources Council.
• Greg Boulbol - General Counsel, Vermont Natural Resources Board.
• Ken Belliveau - Director of Planning & Zoning, Town of Williston

Afternoon Presentations - Rural Vermont Success Stories

Rural development success stories to learn from and be inspired by.

• Jared Duval - VT Department of Economic Development
• Barbara Noyes Pulling - Rutland Regional Planning Commission
• Eric Vorwald - Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission 
• Stephanie Smith - VT Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets

Walking Tour - Downtown Springfield

See what's new in downtown Springfield. Highlights will include discussion of key elements for the recently awarded "Strong Communities, Better Connections" Main Street Corridor Project; Creative Economy Developments, and a tour of One River Street Development.  Tour to conclude at Trout River Brewery.

• Carol Lighthall - Springfield On The Move

Hartness House (our venue)

Part inn, part observatory, part museum - the Hartness House is a truly historic building and property.  The location offers much more than a workshop venue.  It also offers an observatory, an Equatorial Turret Telescope (built in 1910), and an underground tunnel connecting the house to the observatory, which hosts an astronomy museum.

Springfield (our host community)

With a long history of high tech, precision industry, Springfield has seen substantial change and economic upheaval.  It garnered Downtown Designation in 2000, and has a new downtown master plan.  Vermont's "Precision Valley" is in the process of renewal and revitalization.  Learn more about how Springfield is on the move on the afternoon walking tour!