First and foremost, we’d like to say thank you to everyone who has supported the Middlebury Small Town Alliance over the last few weeks. Your incredible support - encouraging FB comments, writing letters and emails, donating generously, proudly planting yard signs, wearing red - has made us so proud of our awesome town! We’re also very thankful for all of the expertise that has come to us exactly when we needed it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
With yesterday’s text amendments application withdrawal at Planning & Zoning, what’s next?
Let’s call it a pause. The site plan application is still before the Conservation Commission. The applicant asked for an extension to respond to the concerns raised by our expert witnesses, and the Conservation Commission also mandated a peer review of the application (which means another review conducted by a third party hired by the Conservation Commission and paid for by the applicant). The Alliance will be hiring our own soil scientist to conduct a review of the applicant’s wetlands report. It is unknown at this point whether the applicant will be back for the March Conservation Commission meeting, or not until April.
We anticipate the applicant will refile with Planning & Zoning at some point, but we don’t know when or what kind of application it will be. We’ve raised over $22,000 in Gofundme and private donations, and we’ve been able to meet our financial obligations thus far for the lawyer, expert witness, and the coveted yard signs. Thank you to all the generous donors who got us to this point - we really appreciate you. However, we’re still shy of our $50,000 fundraising goal, and we anticipate needing every penny as we prepare for the upcoming Conservation Commission meetings and whatever new application comes into P&Z. Please consider supporting us financially - every donation counts, no matter how large or small. You can give online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/
In the meantime, we’ve ordered another 100 yard signs, our civil engineer is standing by to review any revised plans submitted to the Conservation Commission, and we love seeing your comments on FB. Speaking of that, a very spirited thread on the Middlebury FB Group mentioned trash cleanup on our streets and the fact that Earth Day is just around the corner (Saturday, April 22nd). The Alliance offers to coordinate such an effort, and will be reaching out to town officials to see what we can pull together. We know that PHS students need volunteer hours, so we’d be glad to be the supervising authority to verify this volunteer work.
Finally, and most importantly, we believe our town has reached a critical decision point: what does our future look like? What kind of a town do we want to be? The Alliance is not anti-development, and it is completely reasonable to expect that business owners will want to come to the LI-200 zone and invest in our town. We’ve clearly articulated what we DON’T want in the LI-200 zone, and it is just as important to consider what we DO want. If the LI-200 zone needs an overhaul, then let’s get busy and get it done. This should be an open and collaborative process that pulls in expertise from all our town committees, our elected leaders, and the many talented citizens who live in our town. We should be working in partnership with developers and business owners to bring the right project to the right location, with the appropriate balance struck between protecting our natural environment (and our children in their schools), preserving the quality of life for the surrounding residential zones, and allowing business to flourish. The Middlebury Small Town Alliance is committed to this balance, and we ask for your continued support.
Stay tuned - we’ll be in touch when the applicant hits the play button.
Let’s call it a pause. The site plan application is still before the Conservation Commission. The applicant asked for an extension to respond to the concerns raised by our expert witnesses, and the Conservation Commission also mandated a peer review of the application (which means another review conducted by a third party hired by the Conservation Commission and paid for by the applicant). The Alliance will be hiring our own soil scientist to conduct a review of the applicant’s wetlands report. It is unknown at this point whether the applicant will be back for the March Conservation Commission meeting, or not until April.
We anticipate the applicant will refile with Planning & Zoning at some point, but we don’t know when or what kind of application it will be. We’ve raised over $22,000 in Gofundme and private donations, and we’ve been able to meet our financial obligations thus far for the lawyer, expert witness, and the coveted yard signs. Thank you to all the generous donors who got us to this point - we really appreciate you. However, we’re still shy of our $50,000 fundraising goal, and we anticipate needing every penny as we prepare for the upcoming Conservation Commission meetings and whatever new application comes into P&Z. Please consider supporting us financially - every donation counts, no matter how large or small. You can give online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/
In the meantime, we’ve ordered another 100 yard signs, our civil engineer is standing by to review any revised plans submitted to the Conservation Commission, and we love seeing your comments on FB. Speaking of that, a very spirited thread on the Middlebury FB Group mentioned trash cleanup on our streets and the fact that Earth Day is just around the corner (Saturday, April 22nd). The Alliance offers to coordinate such an effort, and will be reaching out to town officials to see what we can pull together. We know that PHS students need volunteer hours, so we’d be glad to be the supervising authority to verify this volunteer work.
Finally, and most importantly, we believe our town has reached a critical decision point: what does our future look like? What kind of a town do we want to be? The Alliance is not anti-development, and it is completely reasonable to expect that business owners will want to come to the LI-200 zone and invest in our town. We’ve clearly articulated what we DON’T want in the LI-200 zone, and it is just as important to consider what we DO want. If the LI-200 zone needs an overhaul, then let’s get busy and get it done. This should be an open and collaborative process that pulls in expertise from all our town committees, our elected leaders, and the many talented citizens who live in our town. We should be working in partnership with developers and business owners to bring the right project to the right location, with the appropriate balance struck between protecting our natural environment (and our children in their schools), preserving the quality of life for the surrounding residential zones, and allowing business to flourish. The Middlebury Small Town Alliance is committed to this balance, and we ask for your continued support.
Stay tuned - we’ll be in touch when the applicant hits the play button.
