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JANUARY 21, 2021
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
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A new vision for Taft Corners
Planners hope to overhaul land-use regulations in Williston’s ‘growth center’ BY JASON STARR Observer staff
Snow smiles
Acadia Brown created ‘Snowy’ with a little help from Dad. OBSERVER PHOTO BY AL FREY
Taft Corners may be ready to evolve past the “big box” store era. It’s been roughly two decades since a large national retailer — the Wal-Marts and Home Depots of the world — built a store in Williston, and town planners are preparing for the likelihood that there won’t be any more. To that end, they have hired a consultant to embark on a yearlong project to overhaul Taft Corners zoning, engaging the public in a visioning session this spring, launching a website at www.mytaftcorners.com and introducing the social media hashtag #mytaftcorners for people to share what they like and don’t like about the area, and what they hope for its future. “The damage has been done a little bit with existing box stores, and we have the opportunity with this plan to figure out what our version of a modern urbanist architectural style will look like and sculpt our own future in that way,” Emily Morton, a member of the town’s Historic and Architectural Advisory Committee, said at a December meeting. Town planners intend to incorporate citizen input about how the area should develop and expertise from its Washington D.C.based consultant into new building standards that prescribe how new structures can look — a so-called “form-based code.” That differs from existing land-use regulations that mandate what types of uses are allowed in particular zoning districts.
Taft Corners is a state designated “Growth Center,” a 1,000-acre area around the intersection of routes 2 and 2A and the Exit 12 interchange of Interstate 89. Williston’s zoning regulations have directed the majority of the town’s land development there. Building design standards in the existing regulations “are not entirely unified with one another, nor do they follow an overarching plan,” Planning Director Matt Boulanger wrote in a memo about the project to the selectboard. They are also vague, for example: “Use a variety of colors and materials, but with restraint.” The efficiencies afforded by the state growth center designation has helped spur significant new development. The Finney Crossing neighborhood has added hundreds of new condos and apartments, a hotel and grocery store; a similar mixed-use neighborhood, Cottonwood Crossing, is under construction nearby. But these developments have “failed to meet community expectations,” Boulanger wrote in a memo last year. He elaborated in an interview Tuesday: “Most of what I’ve been hearing is that a lot of the newer buildings in Taft Corners are boxy and somewhat drab, and sometimes they obscure views of the mountains that used to exist from some of our roads.” Boulanger estimates that about 25 percent of the 1,000-acre area remains undeveloped. The undeveloped land is primarily owned by companies that have already built in the area, such as Cottonwood Crossing’s Allen Brook Development and JL Davis Realty, which partly owns the REI plaza. The towns’ form-based code consultant, Geoffrey Ferrell Associates, plans to interview the private landowners before writing the code. “How they see the world in terms of see TAFT CORNERS page 3
Selectboard bans dogs from Oak View Hill trails BY JASON STARR Observer staff Dogs are no longer allowed on the Oak View Hill trails. The Williston Selectboard voted unanimously Tuesday to ban dogs from the trail system — a town trail easement located on the Isham Family Farm — after persistent disregard of leash rules by pet owners. A growing number of off-leash dogs have
been degrading the farmland and interfering with the farm’s operations. “We’ve asked people nicely to follow the rules and keep their dogs leashed, and still people are disregarding the rules and letting their dogs off leash and leaving their dog doo bags behind,” Williston Conservation Planner Melinda Scott said. “At this point, it’s really become untenable.” The trail system has been town-managed since 2001. It’s the only one of the
town’s trails that winds through a working farm. The land, located on the east side of Oak Hill Road, is managed for wildlife habitat and maple sugaring. Signage will be posted alerting users of the new policy. It may serve as a wakeup call to local dog owners for the consequences of not following leash laws on publicly managed trails, landowner Mike Isham said. “This will be a good lesson to the dog
owners that they have to be respectful on other trails, too,” he said. Scott acknowledged that enforcement of the no dog policy will be a challenge that relies on reports from the landowners and other trail-users. If dog owners continue to take their pets on the trails, the next step would be to chain off the parking area and close the trails to the public, Scott said. “I’m sorry to see it come to this,” Selectboard member Joy Limoge said.