Danville Vermont
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Danville Vermont
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Minutes of Monthly Meeting Danville Planning Commission 6 January 2004 Attendees: Mike Smith Absent: Scott Palmer Derek Fenby Jeff Frampton Jeremy McMullen Kellie Merrell Guests: Jim Ashley David Raphael Start: Meeting opened at 7:06 pm Previous Minutes: Partially reviewed before moving on to discussion with consultant. Public Hearings: None scheduled. New Business: Derek read from the previous meetings regarding the notice to the Surface Transportation Board from the Lamoille Valley Railroad with regards to the rails to trails. The planning commission decided to send a general letter of support of rails to trails using text excerpted from the current approved town plan. It was decided to table any further discussion of particular details of acceptable uses, prohibited uses, liability, etc until later in the town planning process so that town residents and taxpayers can be part of the input. No one was designated as letter writer. The two excerpts from the 1991 Town Plan to be included in the letter are as follows: “Objective #2) Provide for the development and use of recreational transportation systems wherever feasible.” “If the line is ever abandoned, the town should make every reasonable effort to acquire the right of way for use as a trail for various types of recreational use or assure its continued public ownership and use for transportation and recreation purposes.” Before an author for the letter could be chosen, the discussion moved to the Town Planning Process to optimize the use of the consultant’s, David Raphael, time. Derek and David requested electronic copies of the reformatted Town Plan that we will all be working from. Mert will provide Derek with an electronic version and Kellie will provide Landworks with the electronic version. David advised the planning commission that we adopt the state standardized format for the Town plan. The state requires 10 elements be presented in the town plan. He recommended that the commission first delete all the outdated information over the next two meetings in the current town plan version. He also requested that the land survey data be input electronically in a format that Landworks can then use it to present the results from it. Landworks will then put what is left into the state standardized format. Landworks will then identify what required elements are missing and the commission will begin to identify elements and update information they believe need to be added into the plan. The planning commission and Landworks will then have a public workshop the week of February 16th in order to get town input on the overall goals and objectives to include in the plan. The more detailed policies and actions will be established by the planning commission after overall goals and objectives have been identified and agreed upon. The goals and objectives are what are used to assess progress every 5 years. David pointed out an example of what a goal was in 1991 plan. The goal was to address traffic control in the downtown. One objective was to explore the possibility of a bypass. While this objective did not move forward much since the 1991 plan, the goal was achieved in-part by investigating traffic calming approaches in the Route 2 project. Hence, the overall goal was closer to being met, although the primary objective identified to achieve the goal (i.e. a bypass) was not the one used. David used this example to point out the importance of goals vs objectives vs policies and actions when rewriting the town plan. The initial emphasis should be on the goals and town participation in this portion is important and can be encouraged through a public workshop. David gave an example of one of the main 10 elements that the state requires that is missing from our current time plan. The current and future land use plan is a major required portion that is missing. The land use plan is what informs the zoning and fulfills the goals the land use plan presents. David recommended that a current map of the land use in Danville be developed, that current zoning be overlaid and that a future land use map be incorporated into the town plan. David handed out a ‘road map’ as requested by Kellie in an e-mail he received earlier that same day (Appendix A below). In the roadmap, the steps to get our first draft of the new town plan together are outlined. First, the commission will remove material from plan that is outdated. The commission will look at what comes forward from the old plan and what gets left behind. Landworks will then take the first level edits, that have been agreed upon by all planning members, and puts it into the state standard approach. Landworks will identify data that will be important to include in the plan and will let the commission know in order that they can collect it. Getting the data presented in the plan up to date is a priority. Kellie volunteered to imput the land survey data if Mert would allow her to work on a Town computer in the evenings or weekend. David recommended using the regional planning NVDA for mapping. There are 4 required maps and the regional planning NVDA has a standardized method to produce these, with certain colors denoting certain layers, etc. Jeremy volunteered to talk with NVDA to see what mapping help they can give us for the final product. However, in the meantime, Landworks will be able to provide some GIS maps for us to work from, so that we can identify current land use and juxtaposition proposed land use against that. Landworks will do the preliminary map and zoning map work and then turn over to the RPC for standard formatting. The current plan expires in 2006. Hence, while we will get a first draft done by our March 31st, 2004 deadline, we have the time needed to get into the myriad of details that will become apparent. All planning members need to bring their edits to the next planning commission meeting. Focus is to be on what should be removed. Highlighting items to keep will help in the integration process. The commission will then go through a shared plan and agree on what to cut and what to keep. Tax maps keep coming up as a resource that is really needed. Kellie will bring up the importance of current use mapping in Danville at the next Coverts meeting on January 13th. David will look into a student from Middlebury or UVM to do some mapping for us as part of their GIS training. There will be one community event planned for the week of February 16th. Where background data will be presented, the revised town plan stawman will be available, survey results will be compiled for presentation and there will be build out groups to handle/develop major goals in plan that public input are critical to. The workshop will have an ice breaking activity; give an update on the planning process; get peoples desires, goals and hopes; get feedback in small groups; with focus on the different topics of import; and community buy in. Feeback from the workshop will be plugged into the plan. Different available resources will be used to update facts in the plan (i.e. Judy Clifford report on local businesses. Jim Ashley will look into getting to borrow this document). David does not recommend making the plan shorter. You want it long enough that it incorporates the needed detail and shortening it by sacrificing some of that detail is not recommended. However, it can be made more readable. The state format and the skills of Landworks will help to make it more readable and accessible. We will need to decide on a date for the Danville Planning Commission Workshop the week of February 16th in order to advertise it in the February issue of the North Star Monthly. We will need to identify Danville organizations that might be able to contribute information and input into the plan for the phase of planning when we are adding information. Some examples are the School Board, RPC, Vermont Land Trust, Passumpsic Land Trust, Historic Society, etc. In addition, we will need to encourage people in town with specific knowledge on the town to our meetings and invite them to participate. Appendix A “ROAD MAP” for the Danville Town Plan Update Prepared by: LandWorks, Middlebury, Vermont 1. January 6, 2004 - Start-up meeting – agree on schedule dates/participation process/discuss mechanics – Completed 2. Remainder of January - data collection, organization, compilation – PC compile public comments/prepare survey summary – PC organize edits – deliver to LandWorks – PC/RPC – data and mapping – LandWorks to: • Prepare initial Existing Land Use map with available data • Prepare aerial map • Create graphics with survey info • Reformat plan, with PC edits, in accordance with 10 elements and any additional sections as appropriate – deliver to PC in advance of Feb. 4 meeting with PC 3. February 4, 2004 - meeting with LandWorks and PC – Review draft – Talk about goals and objectives for each section – Prepare for community meeting 4. Week of February 16, 2004 - Community event – LandWorks prepares and orchestrates 5. After community event, address consensus items/organize goals, objectives and policies 6. Remainder of February - work on draft with: • Community input • New data • LandWorks input/writing/design 7. 1st week of March - working group meeting with PC, LandWorks, and other key stakeholders (i.e. school board members, Passumpsic Land Trust, etc.) 8. 2nd, 3rd, and 4th week of March – revise and finalize draft/ option for one more PC working group meeting (possibly 3rd week) - public invited to attend 9. March 31, 2004 – Final Draft
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