His point is well taken. The change that has occurred in The Valley
towns over the past decades is enormous and will continue unabated as
development pressures continue. The planning process in The Valley is
well advanced and area towns have crafted well thought out and
visionary Town Plans to help implement the goals of the townspeople.
In Vermont, the Mad River Valley has been held up as an example of a
community that got out ahead of the development pressure in the 1970s
and 1980s and channeled ski area and related development so that much
of the rural character of The Valley has been preserved.
But the job does not end there. Development pressure is constant and
unless local communities manage it, it will manage and shape our future
-- rather than the other way around. The time to start planning for
what our Valley will look like in 2050 (and beyond) is now.
Now is the time to ask what we want to see in our village centers and
how we will preserve our prime agricultural lands. Now is the time to
ask how we will preserve access to the Mad River and keep the river
healthy. Now is the time to address where people will live, where our
food will come from, how we will heat our houses and our water and
where our children will go to school.
Taking public transit as an example, experience shows that a concerted
local effort can bring results -- local efforts were successful in
creating a transit system in the 1990s, but once public focus and
energy moved away from the project, the system faltered and almost
disappeared.
Planning for 2050 will take the same concerted and focused effort. We
cannot take our eyes off the prize for even a minute. The year 2050
will be here in the blink of an eye.
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