The 'Malling' of Vermont: Can the 'Growth Center' Designation Save the Traditional Village from Suburban Sprawl?

Abstract

Today one looks with a fresh eye on…[the] New England village [as an expression] of a new kind of dynamic ecological balance, superior to either the urban monopolies of the Middle Ages or the unregulated sprawl, industrial or suburban, that followed.

The Vermont village is in jeopardy. Never before has Vermont felt such intense pressure for growth -- pressure which unaddressed has led to unplanned, large-scale development outside village centers, in the form of strip malls and shopping centers. The suburban sprawl associated with unplanned development sounds the death knell for that which attracts people to Vermont: the traditional Vermont townscape.

This Note seeks to examine the continued viability of Vermont's traditional village in the face of adversity, the result of which has placed the entire State of Vermont at the top of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of “America's Eleven Most Endangered Places.” [FN2] Part I of this Note traces the origins of the Vermont village, identifies its unique features, and details the benefits of its preservation. Part II illustrates the results of un-planned development as they manifest themselves in suburban sprawl. This section contrasts the evolution, defining features, and land usage of sprawl with the traditional village, and the increasingly popular Neo-traditional movement, which seeks to abolish sprawl and embrace features of the traditional village. Part III sets out the land use approaches currently favored by municipalities and states to guide growth and discusses the land use controls of zoning and planning, and compares these with Vermont's own growth-management statutes: Acts 250 and 200.

Keywords: growth center, act 250, act 200, sprawl, Wal-Mart, Vermont, designation, urban sprawl