Region mixes old and new to grow economy

Vermont Business Magazine, Aug 01, 2004 by Barna, Ed

Middlebury planner Fred Dunnington observed that Middlebury has gone about as far as it can through zoning to block a huge store, by saying any such development "should not have an undue adverse effect on the economic viability of downtown." But that provision has never been tested in court, he said.

This year's major project for downtown Middlebury is installing 20 "historic" streetlights, part of a plan that will eventually encompass a large part of the central village. This will involve tearing up quite a bit of pavement - there are midnights when downtown looks like a Hollywood movie is shooting, with so much illumination and so many work crews around - and it won't happen cheaply. About $77,000 in local money has been supplemented by a $75,000 Vermont Downtown Program grant, just for this year's 20 fixtures.

Meanwhile, another group of stores may be coming to compete with Main Street and Merchants Row, through development of the so-called Maple Manor property. Once the site of a motel by that name, it was given to Middlebury College with the requirement that they get it back into the market.

A proposal for a large hotel there failed to meet local approval, because it was declared to be out of scale with the neighboring Court Street area. But now the college has entered into a purchase and sales agreement with Middlebury South Village, a group managed by Jeffrey Glassberg of Waltham and Stephen D Reid of Brookfield.

They have said they will propose a mixed use plan for the 31 acres, including six multi-story structures around a green and 45 single-family homes targeting VHFA-eligible first-time buyers. The larger structures would have about 42,000 square feet of retail and office space on the first and second floors, and about 30 apartments or condominiums on the second and third floors.

Tom Corbin, the college's director of business services, said when the plan was announced that, "It complies with the town plan, and the firm has an excellent track record."

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Bristol has faced a major development issue of a more traditional Vermont kind in the past year, proposed by the local Lathrop Limited Partnership. Its principals include owners of the Claire Lathrop Bandmill, which was stricken three years ago by a devastating and largely uninsured fire.

The group proposed to turn part of their land holdings southeast of the downtown area into a 66-acre gravel pit. That idea led to a series of heated meetings at which residents aired concerns about noise, traffic, seismic activity, road conditions, effects on air and water, and property values. (The need for the gravel went unquestioned; in fact, town officials said they had thought of buying the land themselves for that purpose.)

Under local zoning, this would be heavy industry, not allowed except as a conditional use. A scaled-back proposal attempting to address neighbors' concerns was worked out, but the last word has not been heard, because it's been appealed to the state's Environmental Court.