PlannerMattVT
@mattboulanger.bsky.social
In Vermont. Planner by trade.
How do we fix FHA presale issues? Is there a potential bill at the federal level that could do this? I admit I don't understand this well but I believe it makes quite a lot of ownership missing middle harder to do. I think this is part of it: www.huduser.gov/portal/perio...
www.huduser.gov
January 23, 2025 at 10:03 PM
How do we fix FHA presale issues? Is there a potential bill at the federal level that could do this? I admit I don't understand this well but I believe it makes quite a lot of ownership missing middle harder to do. I think this is part of it: www.huduser.gov/portal/perio...
And of course yes to housing. Yes to small or project-based TIF so rural village centers can be revitalized with enough homes and businesses to make them sustainable! Yes to game-changing infrastructure projects in areas planned for growth that will provide homes of all types...
January 23, 2025 at 2:05 PM
And of course yes to housing. Yes to small or project-based TIF so rural village centers can be revitalized with enough homes and businesses to make them sustainable! Yes to game-changing infrastructure projects in areas planned for growth that will provide homes of all types...
...My dad taught at CVU. Mt. Abe and CVU were fundamentally different High School experiences 1990-1995, but I'd argue that today, post Act 60 by 25ish years, they still very much are.
January 23, 2025 at 2:04 PM
...My dad taught at CVU. Mt. Abe and CVU were fundamentally different High School experiences 1990-1995, but I'd argue that today, post Act 60 by 25ish years, they still very much are.
I'd argue the power was diluted once Act 60 went into effect. Local control has been an illusion since then. I grew up in Monkton and went to Mt. Abe, lived where i could see Hinesburg from our porch...
January 23, 2025 at 2:03 PM
I'd argue the power was diluted once Act 60 went into effect. Local control has been an illusion since then. I grew up in Monkton and went to Mt. Abe, lived where i could see Hinesburg from our porch...
There's so much geography driving how schools operate in VT- can't run busses over the gaps, drive times to the center of each of these districts are probably more similar than if you divided things by population... That's my guess anyway.
January 23, 2025 at 1:50 PM
There's so much geography driving how schools operate in VT- can't run busses over the gaps, drive times to the center of each of these districts are probably more similar than if you divided things by population... That's my guess anyway.
What's happening in Williston right now is a good thing and due to a bunch of talented, visionary people in the Town who are stretching themselves to make it happen, but the fortune's of Vermont's people who need homes and its economy should not rest on so few shoulders- it's too important.
/fin
/fin
January 9, 2025 at 2:13 PM
What's happening in Williston right now is a good thing and due to a bunch of talented, visionary people in the Town who are stretching themselves to make it happen, but the fortune's of Vermont's people who need homes and its economy should not rest on so few shoulders- it's too important.
/fin
/fin
...to find ways to help communities like Williston that are so well-positioned to meet the state's housing challenges (and do suburban repair of big-box development from the 90's at the same time, and make a place more bikeable and walkable)....
January 9, 2025 at 2:12 PM
...to find ways to help communities like Williston that are so well-positioned to meet the state's housing challenges (and do suburban repair of big-box development from the 90's at the same time, and make a place more bikeable and walkable)....
That said we are studying the feasibility of using TIF in Williston, but it's all very new for us and the capacity to even consider the tool is a challenge. In conclusion, for the goals in the letter writers' statement to be achieved in Vermont, we need...
January 9, 2025 at 2:11 PM
That said we are studying the feasibility of using TIF in Williston, but it's all very new for us and the capacity to even consider the tool is a challenge. In conclusion, for the goals in the letter writers' statement to be achieved in Vermont, we need...
So finding the capacity to do big infrastructure planning and funding is a real challenge. On the funding side, there is one tool that really stands out, which is Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which we are studying but which current law severely limits and makes it very challenging to use.
January 9, 2025 at 2:08 PM
So finding the capacity to do big infrastructure planning and funding is a real challenge. On the funding side, there is one tool that really stands out, which is Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which we are studying but which current law severely limits and makes it very challenging to use.
Remember, Williston, while big for VT, is a town of about 10k people in a Dillon's Rule State with high school taxes that aren't really under local control but come on the same bill as the municipality. We have fewer than 100 FTE in the Town, and we operate frugally.
January 9, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Remember, Williston, while big for VT, is a town of about 10k people in a Dillon's Rule State with high school taxes that aren't really under local control but come on the same bill as the municipality. We have fewer than 100 FTE in the Town, and we operate frugally.
- and that's just about gaining control of them, let alone rebuilding them. And there's lots of other public infrastructure that needs to be built as well. Neighborhood Streets, sewer and stormwater, public parks, and expansions of wastewater treatment capacity are all needed to support new homes.
January 9, 2025 at 2:05 PM
- and that's just about gaining control of them, let alone rebuilding them. And there's lots of other public infrastructure that needs to be built as well. Neighborhood Streets, sewer and stormwater, public parks, and expansions of wastewater treatment capacity are all needed to support new homes.
But we face several realities in trying to achieve this Vision. Two of the major streets in this area are state highways that cannot be remade into walkable, bikeable streets unless the Town takes them over, an expensive proposition for a small place: www.town.williston.vt.us/vertical/sit...
www.town.williston.vt.us
January 9, 2025 at 2:03 PM
But we face several realities in trying to achieve this Vision. Two of the major streets in this area are state highways that cannot be remade into walkable, bikeable streets unless the Town takes them over, an expensive proposition for a small place: www.town.williston.vt.us/vertical/sit...
Then we adopted the new code: www.town.williston.vt.us/vertical/sit... as well as an Official Map regulating where and how new streets will be built: www.town.williston.vt.us/vertical/sit... and new street specifications to make the area walkable and livable: www.town.williston.vt.us/vertical/Sit...
www.town.williston.vt.us
January 9, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Then we adopted the new code: www.town.williston.vt.us/vertical/sit... as well as an Official Map regulating where and how new streets will be built: www.town.williston.vt.us/vertical/sit... and new street specifications to make the area walkable and livable: www.town.williston.vt.us/vertical/Sit...
...taking a retail-only zone (2 units/acre only in the early 2000's) to one where the zoned capacity is for over 4,000 homes on about 840 acres- in greenfield and grayfield redevelopment only- This looks like the Vision Plan we based the zoning on: www.town.williston.vt.us/vertical/sit...
www.town.williston.vt.us
January 9, 2025 at 1:58 PM
...taking a retail-only zone (2 units/acre only in the early 2000's) to one where the zoned capacity is for over 4,000 homes on about 840 acres- in greenfield and grayfield redevelopment only- This looks like the Vision Plan we based the zoning on: www.town.williston.vt.us/vertical/sit...
Williston (where I work, opinions are my own, yada yada) is a great example of this. In 2020 we started a process that ended with adopting a Form-Based Code for our retail-big-box center that fundamentally changed how residential density and building height is handled...
January 9, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Williston (where I work, opinions are my own, yada yada) is a great example of this. In 2020 we started a process that ended with adopting a Form-Based Code for our retail-big-box center that fundamentally changed how residential density and building height is handled...
Zoning reform is great (and was/is much needed in VT) but at this point we need a path to better infrastructure that will support homes in the places it makes sense to build them. Unfortunately the small-scale nature of doing that infrastructure on a municipal level is daunting...
January 9, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Zoning reform is great (and was/is much needed in VT) but at this point we need a path to better infrastructure that will support homes in the places it makes sense to build them. Unfortunately the small-scale nature of doing that infrastructure on a municipal level is daunting...
Had a lovely experience taking the train Exeter- Barnstaple and renting bikes for the day- we rode to Bideford for lunch and back to Barnstaple to return to Exeter- lovely day trip and I'm sure the Station Master's was the only place in all of England I was able to buy a giant coffee on our trip.
December 18, 2024 at 4:14 PM
Had a lovely experience taking the train Exeter- Barnstaple and renting bikes for the day- we rode to Bideford for lunch and back to Barnstaple to return to Exeter- lovely day trip and I'm sure the Station Master's was the only place in all of England I was able to buy a giant coffee on our trip.
I still use them occasionally for paper site plan review. Moreso when I'm trying to quickly show what our FBC will allow/require on a site in town, it's faster for me to print out a 40-scale orthophoto with parcel lines in GIS and then sketch over it.
December 3, 2024 at 5:14 PM
I still use them occasionally for paper site plan review. Moreso when I'm trying to quickly show what our FBC will allow/require on a site in town, it's faster for me to print out a 40-scale orthophoto with parcel lines in GIS and then sketch over it.
Someday I'm going to do a talk on "Official Maps, the Unsung Hero of Vermont Planning." (Once we actually use ours in Williston for something significant!) vpic.info/Publications...
vpic.info
December 2, 2024 at 9:19 PM
Someday I'm going to do a talk on "Official Maps, the Unsung Hero of Vermont Planning." (Once we actually use ours in Williston for something significant!) vpic.info/Publications...
“Don’t build a municipal sewer system” is a not-so-stealth NIMBY strategy along the Northeast Coast. It’s the first objection you’ll hear if you bring up sewer on Cape Cod.
December 1, 2024 at 10:56 PM
“Don’t build a municipal sewer system” is a not-so-stealth NIMBY strategy along the Northeast Coast. It’s the first objection you’ll hear if you bring up sewer on Cape Cod.
I once actually biked over the Bourne bridge and through the death “rotary” on the off-cape side. I don’t remember why.
November 30, 2024 at 2:06 PM
I once actually biked over the Bourne bridge and through the death “rotary” on the off-cape side. I don’t remember why.