Fitting tribute
Title tilt
Statehouse, local rep honor Marshall and Kate Webb
CVU boys win first-ever basketball championship
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Volume 52 Number 12
shelburnenews.com
March 23, 2023
Shelburne We are the champions! picks bylaw overhaul consultant Process expected to take nearly two years LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
A consultant has been hired to assist Shelburne’s planning commission and planning and zoning staff with a massive bylaw overhaul that has been in the works since December. The Windor-based consulting firm PlaceSense, has been a professional land-use planning service since 2005 and has experience, “with a variety of projects, from small to large-scale, residential to commercial development and rural to urban design,” according to the firm’s website. “We work with municipal, nonprofit and private sector clients to create places for people – communities with quality housing, strong economies, attractive public spaces, safe streets and healthy ecosystems,” the site reads. Aaron DeNamur, the town’s planning coordinator and assistant zoning administrator, said while the town only received this one bid, the subcommittee responsible for the hiring was thoroughly impressed and confi-
PHOTO BY PAUL LAMONTAGNE
The Champlain Valley Union High School Redhawks with their championship trophy. The girls defeated St. Johnsbury 43-29 in the Division I title game on March 3 at the University of Vermont’s Patrick gym. See story on page 11.
dent with PlaceSense’s experience. The decision for this work comes after a contentious, nearly year-long zoning battle in a designation of the town’s zoning known as the mixed-residential character district. Hiring a consultant was the next step
for many residents who have been actively involved in zoning decisions this year, including a residential group known as the Shelburne Alliance for the Environment, or S.A.F.E, who urged the planning commission to “stay the course with their original idea of using an experienced and inde-
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pendent consultant to help them chart the path forward for their very important project.” “There are not a lot of consultants in the state who do this kind of work to begin with and there’s a lot of other municipalities trying to do similar (work),” DeNamur said. “The few consultants that
do this are very, very busy.” “I was impressed by their very quick understanding of the issues that we were identifying,” commission member Marla Keene said at the March 8 planSee CONSULTANT on page 12
ERNIE AND JOE: CRISIS COPS, A FILM SCREENING AND PANEL PRESENTATION April 13, 2023 | 6:30-8:00 pm Zoom webinar panel with Q&A. | 802-488-6912 Registration required at www.howardcenter.org