Planning process another beneficiary of high-tech

Vermont Business Magazine, Aug 01, 2000 by Barna, Ed

Backing up that faith, the Orton Institute has commissioned the development of extremely powerful GIS-related planning software, and is in the process of training communities in its use. CommunityViz (tm) is a set of extensions to the commonly used ArcView GIS software, which will allow citizens - including businesses scoping out development possibilities - to pre-visualize the results of proposed changes.

"There are three primary components to CommunityViz," said a recent summary from the Rutland Regional Planning Commission, which has been working closely with the Orton Institute headquarters in Rutland and its director, former Rutland Regional Development Corporation executive director William Shouldice IV.

- "Scenario Constructor formulates and designs alternative scenarios on a GIS platform. It supports impact analysis, indicator tracking, and alternative comparisons."

- "TownBuilder3D, a three-dimensional visualization tool, depicts realistic scenarios of current and future plans as conceived by communities and their citizens."

- "Both the Scenario Constructor and the 'smart' 3D environment generated by TownBuilder3D are fully synchronized with the third component, Policy Simulator. Policy Simulator forecasts the implications of local land use and policy alternatives in the context of regional land use, demographic, and economic information. Data inputted into any one component of the software is reflected automatically in the other two components.

"The Orton Family Foundation is developing Community Viz(tm) in partnership with Multigen Paradigm, Inc of San Jose, CA, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP of New York and Los Angeles, ForeSite Consulting, Inc of Loveland, CO, and The Environmental Simulation Center of New York City."

CommunityViz is now being beta-tested at eight sites around the country, two of which are in Vermont. Selected from 40 applicants who responded to a mailing to 250 communities, the eight are: the Lamoille Regional Planning Commission with Morristown; the Rutland Regional Planning Commission with Brandon; Falmouth, Maine; Ontario County, New York; Lyons, CO; Healthy Mountain Communities and the City of Carbondale, Colorado and Routt County with Steamboat Springs, CO; and the County and City of Santa Fe, NM, in collaboration with the Trust for Public Lands and the Department of Energy.

During the week of June 12-16, about 40 participants from the eight test sites met for training at Middlebury College, whose Geography Department is involved with the Orton project and which will provide four interns to help participating towns this summer.

William Hegman, chairman of the Middlebury Geography Department, said, "The training went quite well. I don't think it could have gone any better. It was fascinating." Hegman, who has a background in natural resources as well as geography, said, "In the last three-fourfive years, we've seen a lot more capability in GIS and a lot more people using GIS." Coordinately, along with more use, "there's a lot more data now," he said.