A tri-town, intra-municipal planning body, the district is governed by a steering committee made up of a planning commissioner and select board member from each of its three member towns, Warren, Waitsfield and Fayston. Each of those six members has a vote as does a chamber of commerce representative. Sugarbush sits on the committee but does not vote.
The planning district was formed in response to development pressure and out of a desire to channel growth into appropriate areas and regulate the pace of development.
With Sugarbush and the U.S. Forest Service, the planning district has overseen the creation of a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding that spells out how and when development at the ski area triggers review through "major segment review" and other intermediate reviews.
Part of the impetus behind the creation of the planning district was to view The Valley as a whole and as an interconnected community where what happens in Warren affects Fayston and vice versa. At the time of its creation the majority of the development and growth pressure in The Valley was coming from Sugarbush.
If that is no longer the case, if the development pressure in The Valley is external to ski area development, member towns in the district may need to revisit the structure of the planning district. The idea of viewing The Valley as an interconnected whole, from a planning perspective, still makes sense.
In fact, it makes more sense in 2008 than it did in 1982-83 when the planning district was created.
But review carefully. This is about more than who pays for what in supporting the district. The planning district is too valuable historically and going forward to be viewed through only one lens.
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