Friends and Neighbors
Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Montpelier Public Engagement Newsletter (PEN).
Born out of frustration with mediocre communication and a general lack of real transparency by Montpelier city government, PEN will be a forum for information and analysis of civic issues that impact a broad range of residents of our small city.
This issue provides a small sample of the kind of coverage you may expect if you sign on to have Montpelier PEN sent confidentially to your email address or to read it online at montpelierpen.org, both at absolutely no cost to you and free of advertisements.
PEN will be published roughly weekly and/or when civic issues arise that may deserve immediate attention.
To receive PEN in your email, let us know at peterhkelman@yahoo.com and by all means feel free to pass on this and any other issue of PEN to others you think may be interested.
Country Club Road Site
How this 140 acre property, purchased by the city in early July 2022, will be developed and used are matters that may have a profound effect on the lives of most Montpelier residents and will almost certainly define the city over the next several decades.
As a result and under considerable public pressure, the City Council required its development consultants (White + Burke) to mount a robust public-engagement process that will enable today’s residents to have a strong voice in determining what shape this development will take.
This represents a welcomed and all-too-rare opportunity for residents to play a meaningful role in city planning and development and we must embrace it so as to counter the suggestions we have heard from some government leaders that most residents “don’t care” about such weighty matters and would just as soon “leave it to the professionals.”
Thus, all residents of Montpelier are encouraged to attend one or more of the following public meetings to discuss potential plans for use of this major city-owned property:
January 28 10 AM-noon at the former Elks Club Lodge
(Note: this meeting took place, as scheduled, and drew a reasonably large audience, many of whom expressed their views on how the property should be used and/or on the process for determining this.)
February 2 6-8 PM in City Council Chambers at City Hall
February 9 12 noon-2 PM via Zoom (link not yet provided)
Background information
City website home page for Country Club Road Site Property Development
Master Planning Update to City Council by White+Burke, January 18, 2023
The Bridge article: Public Input Sought for Country Club Road Site
Next Issue: The Vermont College of Fine Arts Campus Master Plan/Planned Unit Development Application to the Development Review Board
