The Fayston Planning Commission is in the early stages of updating the Fayston Town Plan a process officials say will take several years and rely heavily on public input.
Planning commissioner Andrew McNealus said the commission has just begun reviewing the existing Town Plan, which was last fully updated in February 2020, just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re very early in redoing our Town Plan because it’s not due till 2028,” McNealus said. “But it does take time.”
Town Plans are aspirational documents that outline a community’s goals and priorities, from housing and economic development to conservation and infrastructure. While not regulatory themselves, they form the basis for local land use regulations and zoning bylaws.
“The land use regulations are based on the Town Plan,” McNealus said. “When we have a question about how do we want to make this land use regulation, we look — well, what does the town think in the Town Plan?”
The commission’s first step is to revisit the 2020 plan chapter by chapter, reviewing its goals and objectives and evaluating how well they have been implemented.
“We’ve been reviewing that last one and reviewing the goals and objectives from each chapter,” McNealus said. “Mainly what we’re looking for is if our land use regulations are reflecting those goals that they put in place, or if there’s a concrete tie between the Town Plan and the land use regulations.”
So far, he said, many of the plan’s goals do have corresponding regulations. But not all.
“I would say most of the goals and objectives from the last one have some concrete land use regulation that we can kind of point to,” he said. “But there are some that are missing. … We’re working on a list of where the gaps are.”
Identifying those gaps — where the town’s stated priorities are not reflected in zoning — will help guide the next phase of the rewrite, as well as future regulatory changes.
“That’s how it will get people to care,” McNealus said. “To say, look, this is the plan and then this is how it actually functions — and what’s not functioning determines where work is needed.”
Public engagement is expected to ramp up this summer, when the commission begins discussing individual chapters in open meetings and inviting feedback.
“Before we make any changes, we want to hear from the public,” McNealus said. “I think probably in the meetings starting this summer we’ll start talking about each chapter and dedicate time to hearing from the public for each of those.”
The goal, he added, is to ensure residents are involved early — not just at the end of the process.
“We don’t want people to be blindsided by the time when we actually redline, make changes, take it to Select Board,” he said. “Hopefully everybody’s had a chance to give their feedback before that.”
Among the topics likely to generate the most interest are housing and development. McNealus said those issues — particularly short-term rentals and housing availability — are top of mind for many residents.
“Big picture, I hope people are interested because we’re going to have stuff in here on short-term rentals, all sorts of types of development issues that I think people really care about,” he said.
He pointed to housing more broadly as a central theme.
“One of the topics that I think people would care most about would be housing,” McNealus said. “And then under that, it’s like short-term rentals and how they impact housing, where Fayston can direct or should direct density in certain areas.”
Other topics include how the town manages its natural resources and recreational assets, such as trails and conserved lands.
“Trails has already been a hot topic,” he said, noting that past discussions have drawn significant public comment. “More broadly, it’s like how should Fayston manage the natural areas.”
The plan may also address broader, regional questions, including Fayston’s role in Valley-wide initiatives.
One example is the Waitsfield wastewater system and whether Fayston should contribute financially to infrastructure that benefits the broader Mad River Valley.
“How should Fayston contribute, or not contribute, to Waitsfield wastewater and Valley-wide planning in general?” McNealus said. “There’s always going to be some people that are like, why are we paying for this? … and then there’s the argument that it contributes and it’s a good use of our time and money.”
Ultimately, he said, the rewrite is an opportunity to reconnect residents with a document that often operates in the background but has real-world impacts.
“The document behind the zoning ordinance is the Town Plan,” McNealus said. “What’s put in our Town Plan becomes real on the ground with the zoning ordinance.”
As the process moves forward, the commission is encouraging residents to get involved early and often. Fayston has posted a public survey on its website to gather initial input, and additional outreach and meetings are planned in the months ahead.
The survey and a QR quote can be found on the town’s website www.faystonvt.com and
here is a link to the survey:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7GbmiqrPWYwX7Rv3NNLupQv_Wo8zzYfU274t3Ua4MLbCS-w/viewform?usp=header
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