A second community open house for the public to participate in planning how Irasville will be developed takes place next week and will feature three different scenarios.
The March 19 meeting takes place at the Village Meeting House at the Waitsfield United Church of Christ in Waitsfield Village. The event runs from 4 to 7 p.m. People are invited to drop by at any point during the open house to check out the scenarios and weigh in on them. Child care will be available as well as kid-friendly planning activities.
Waitsfield is masterplanning for Irasville, The Valley’s commercial hub which is ringed with wetlands on the west side. The three scenarios that people will see next week differ in how they treat the wetlands. Each scenario shows development of 70 residential units. One scenario calls for minimal encroachment into the wetlands, one calls for moderate and one calls for more extensive encroachment.
Those three different scenarios will result in different development, traffic patterns, building sizes as well and road, trail, and path networks.
Avoiding or minimizing development in the wetlands will mean an easier permitting process, larger building and utilizing the existing road infrastructure.
Moderate encroachment into the wetlands will face some permitting scrutiny, require new parking, and provide more options for commercial development (along with residential) and civic uses. This scenario will result in what planners report will be a “greater potential for true village center feel and function.”
Extensive development in the wetlands is what the planners are calling the full build-out scenario. That will require new road infrastructure and surface parking and the greatest potential for “true village center feel and function.”
Developing that extensively in the wetlands will require more prescriptive planning.
The goal of this masterplanning process is to create an actionable and forward-looking vision and roadmap for a vibrant village center. This process builds work to develop a municipal wastewater system and recent updates to zoning bylaws for Waitsfield’s villages. At the open house, participants will share thoughts on potential village center development scenarios for Irasville. This input will shape the recommendations in the Irasville Village Master Plan, including strategies for promoting housing, local businesses, pedestrian and bicycle access, community facilities, outdoor recreation opportunities, and natural resource conservation.
This open house event builds off the feedback from a November 2204 open house. Takeaways from that event included:
- Attendees were both excited and concerned about the future of Irasville. The recent loss of businesses and community services. Irasville was top of mind for many participants. Many felt that Irasville holds great potential as a vibrant village center for Waitsfield and the Mad River Valley.
- Attendees were supportive of an infill development approach for future redevelopment in Irasville, with a focus on housing, local-serving businesses, and mixed-use development.
- Attendees were supportive of a balanced approach to wetlands in Irasville that preserves critical wetland functions while considering possible impacts to low-functioning wetlands if those impacts result in significant community benefit.
- Attendees were supportive of exploring potential transportation infrastructure improvements to improve walkable development in Irasville, including improved pedestrian connections and possible new roadways to create village blocks.
- Attendees want this planning process to explore enhanced recreational and community facilities, such as a year-round recreation or community center and community gathering spaces.
- Attendees were supportive of exploring a mix of building heights for future development, with a minimum building height of two stories.
For more information, visit https://www.waitsfieldvt.gov/departments/projects/irasville-village-master-plan.
