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RECIPE INSIDE! FEBRUARY 24, 2022
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
Girls enter playoffs as No. 2 seed
Developer opposition grows to Taft Corners zoning changes BY KARSON PETTY Community News Service
OBSERVER PHOTO BY AL FREY
CVU senior Chloe Snipes gets into the paint for two points during the Redhawks’ game vs. the MMU Cougars last Tuesday in HInesburg. After winning eight of its last nine games of the regular season, the CVU girls basketball team is well-positioned entering the Division I playoffs. The Redhawks go in as the No. 2 seed with a bye in the first round. CVU (15-3) will take on the winner of No. 7 Colchester and No. 10 Brattleboro this Thursday in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. The Redhawks did not face Colchester during the regular season but faced off against Brattleboro early in the year, beating the Colonels 67-29. Rice, at 16-1, is the No. 1 seed in the tournament.
Energy committee work begins
The newly formed Williston Energy Committee began the work of implementing the town’s Energy Plan this month and, with a positive vote at Town Meeting Day, will have a staff member in the town’s Planning and Zoning office to further its efforts. Last week, the selectboard approved a job description for an energy and community development planner and included the position in its budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget will be up for voter consideration at Tuesday’s Town Meeting Day election. The position will report to the planning director and attend energy committee meetings. Its duties include spearheading energy efficiency projects and recommending the best ways to increase renewable energy use and decrease fossil fuel
use in heating, transportation and electricity. The job description also has duties not specific to the energy plan, such as the general review of land development applications, managing affordable housing projects and “other programs designed for the betterment of the community.” Meanwhile, the energy committee held its first meeting Feb. 2 and voted in Reed Parker as chair. The committee meets every other Wednesday at 6 p.m. The first two meetings have been held online over Zoom. When the committee met this Wednesday, its primary order of business was to review specific tasks in the energy plan related to energy efficiency in homes and businesses and promoting electric vehicles. — Jason Starr
WWW.WILLISTONOBSERVER.COM
Developers pushed back on proposed rule changes to turn Taft Corners into a walkable downtown area at the latest Williston Planning Commission meeting. The Feb. 15 meeting was the second one held by the planning commission where Williston residents and developers could weigh in on changes to a working draft of new zoning rules. The rules are called form-based code, which was formally introduced in a Feb. 1 planning commission meeting, but has been in discussion for about a year. “There’s been a lot of comments from developers about this process being rushed or only having two weeks to react,” said Alex Daley, a planning commission member. The code will do away with distinct commercial, residential and industrial districts in favor of a comprehensive plan to have mixeduse developments ― such as public greens and getting rid of expansive parking lots. “We’ve been at this for a year,” Daley said, “We’ve had numerous planning commission meetings where we’ve gone over (the code) page by page, line by line, sentence by sentence.” Over those meetings, the planning commission and town planning staff took feedback from residents on the state of Taft Corners and published a document outlining the public’s vision for Taft Corners.
Geoff Ferrell, a design consultant hired by the town, led his team in writing the new rules and creating a new street grid based on the public’s vision. The meetings during the spring of 2021 were held in an open and transparent way, Daley said, but no developers, or their representatives,
‘We’ve had some fruitful meetings … but we remain very concerned about the unintended consequences that are going to pop up here.’ Jeff Nick Taft Corners Associates
attended them. Over the first two weeks of February, town planning staff had conversations with developers where changes to the working draft of the new code were discussed. “We’ve had some fruitful meetings with (town) staff and Geoff (Ferrell),” said Jeff Nick of Taft Corners Associates, “but we remain very concerned about the unintended consequences that are going to pop up here.” Proposed changes to the code since Feb. 1 could be applied to three parts of Taft Corners, said Planning and Zoning Director Matt
Boulanger. The southeast area of Taft Corners, owned by Al Senecal and known as Cottonwood Crossing, was the first part up for discussion. Under the proposed plan, Senecal was given more land to develop, but said he was still concerned that it made up an estimated 15 percent of his entire property. That 15 percent would include off-street parking, alleyways and private open spaces, leaving him about 5 acres, out of 80, to put buildings on. Senecal said he is also concerned by an estimate from his site division team that put the cost of building all the roads proposed for his property at upwards of $10 million. He said that the drafting process for the new code was going very quickly, and that everyone should have more time to digest the new rules. “I don’t think I’m ready to say that I want to commit to this,” he said. The northeast area of Taft Corners, owned by Chris Snyder and known as the Essex Alliance Church property, included a redesign of the proposed street grid to allow for development on both sides of the streets. Snyder was concerned that the new code is not accommodating enough for new projects that do not quite fit within the new rules, like his own project, which is currently under review by the town. see DEVELOPERS page 2
Budget hikes and borrowing requests Voters to weigh in on Town Meeting Day Tuesday BY JASON STARR Observer staff
About 270 completed ballots have already come into the Williston Town Clerk’s office as Town Meeting Day early voting enters its final days. Traditional in-person voting is scheduled for Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the National Guard Armory at 7846 Williston Rd. In all, 622 out of roughly 7,800 registered voters requested early ballots, Town Clerk Sarah Mason
said. Early ballots that have not already been mailed back can be placed in the drop box behind Town Hall through noon Monday or handed to a poll worker Tuesday at the Armory. Williston voters have two ballots to consider: the town’s, with its budget proposal and uncontested races for elected seats on a variety of boards; and the Champlain Valley School District’s, with its budget proposal and questions on borrowing money for school
building maintenance and buses. The Annual Meeting typically held at the Williston Central School auditorium will instead be held online over Zoom. Votes will not be taken as it will be an informational meeting related to the questions on the ballot. A link to the meeting is available at the town website (www.town. williston.vt.us). It is scheduled for a 7 p.m. Monday start. The school district Annual Meeting will also be informational only and held over Zoom, starting at 5 see TOWN MEETING page 3