Beginning later this winter, the Town plans to undergo a planning process to determine the preferred uses on the recently purchased 80/90 Upper Main Street. The 32-acre site presents an excellent development opportunity for multi-use development, including the Town’s municipal office building, fire station, library, and community space, as well as potential housing, commercial uses, and outdoor recreational opportunities. The question has arisen about how the site can be utilized in the near term, prior to buildout of the site. Specifically, ideas regarding developing a community garden and walking paths.
Staff met to discuss ideas and opportunities as well as challenges, and other future issues.
Although the site has the potential for recreation aspects in the future, at this point, existing challenges would make it incredibly difficult to install any recreational features in the coming year. The site at current does not have direct road access and this would need to be obtained from VTrans prior to any use on the site. Parking areas would also need to be constructed. The site is not currently connected to public or private water. Depending on the uses, Planning Commission/DRB/ZBA review would likely be required. Consideration should also be given to investing significant funds into developing any sort of infrastructure that would be subject to removal with any future construction.
Once the above-mentioned challenges are met, a community garden could be installed, specifically using raised beds that can be a variety of heights but with a focus on tabletop height for walk-up/wheel-up access. These beds could be relocated within the two parcels once site construction begins, and rain barrels could be used for watering the gardens.