Vermont Design Institute

Additional Articles: The Earther Charter Passes Town Meeting, The Ark of Hope

HISTORIC MAIN STREET PARTNERSHIP STUDY
Diane Gayer and Kathleen Ryan

Assessment of Historic Buildings, Site and Parking, & Wayfinding
A Project of the Vermont Design Institute
Burlington, Vermont August 2001

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Overview
The Historic Main Street Partnership was formed in July, 2000 to work on physical site and institutional building needs along Main Street, St. Johnsbury. Specific concerns were parking, streetscaping, physical space needs by the institutions, and signage.

Project Description
The Historic Main Street Partnership study was developed because of citizen and institutional concerns over parking, pedestrian and vehicular access, circulation, and space needs for key institutions in the Historic District. The project goals were to identify solutions for the variety of parking needs, make recommendations for improved pedestrian circulation, develop lighting and signage designs for the historic areas which are compatible with the rest of the downtown, and analyze and recommend building and site utilization along historic Main Street.

The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum and the municipal offices joined forces to oversee this project which was funded by a $40,000 grant from the Vermont legislature. Lorna Higgs served as project administrator responsible for coordination of the project and record keeping. A steering committee including the Town Manager, town officers, and board trustees was formed to oversee the direction of the project and act as sounding board.

The Partnership contracted with the Vermont Design Institute to implement the design and planning work. Diane Gayer, Architect and Kathleen Ryan, Landscape Architect, are the principles working on this project. Michael Oman, comprehensive and transportation planner, worked on the Parking Analysis, and Audrey Augustin, graphic designer, worked on the Signage and Wayfinding component of the study.

Meetings between the consultants and the steering committee were held monthly on an as needed basis to determine buildings and sites to be analyzed in this study, communicate information as it was uncovered, and plan the public forums. Research was done on the development of the historic area and base drawings for the streetscaping analysis and design were prepared during the fall of 2000.

The first public meeting was held the evening of November 20, 2000. This forum was held to hear about parking, pedestrian circulation, and streetscaping concerns by the citizens of St. Johnsbury. Attendance totaled approximately 40 members of the St. Johnsbury community. The public meeting consisted of an overview of the Main Street project, a slide presentation on streetscape ideas and concepts from other communities, a general plan for the study area, historic maps of the downtown, findings from the Louis Berger report, dated 1999, and a break-out session where five groups worked on answering questions about pedestrian and vehicular circulation, parking and walking distances, and other issues related to Main Street.

Participation in the Downtown Forum and the St. Johnsbury Design Charrette, spring 2001, were also included in the public outreach and input part of this study. The final public meeting was held on June 26, 2001.

In addition, Kathleen Ryan and Diane Gayer worked with Alison Meaders on coordination with the Downtown Program and the street lighting proposal for the Enhancements Grant. Michael Oman and Kathleen Ryan (from the consultant team) together with Mike Welch and Ruth Bristol (from the town) spent the day of May 22 doing a parking count for the parking analysis.

Those interviewed concerning building, streetscaping, and parking issues over the course of this Main Street project include town employees, police and fire chiefs, side judge, US postmaster, directors of Catamount Arts, Atheneaum, and Fairbanks Museum, and individual citizens.

Final Products
Final products developed for this study include:
• Schematic drawings for potential expansion of the municipal offices to the Adams School
• Schematic drawings for potential expansion of the Athenaeum on its existing site.
• Recommendations for improved pedestrian and vehicular circulation
• Feasibility study for parking for the Municipal Parking Lot
• Streetscape improvements - schematic plans
• Enhanced site utilization schematic diagrams for the Municipal Building, Athenaeum, and Post Office
• Parking inventory and analysis
•Signage and wayfinding recommendations
•Sign designs and colors, plus full scale sign mock-ups

THE EARTH CHARTER PASSES AT TOWN MEETING: DEMOCRACY IN ACTION
Gwen Hallsmith

At Town Meetings back in March, 21 Towns endorsed the Earth Charter, despite some fairly strong opposition from sportsmen who took exception to the principles describing hunting practices, and others who likened the principles of social and economic justice to communism, or questioned the mandate for peace and non-violence when we are at war. The debates that took place on Town Meeting floor were lively and enlightening, no matter how the vote for endorsement came out. Seven towns tabled
consideration of the Charter until next year, one town had a tie vote, and four towns defeated the article endorsing the Charter.

The Towns that endorsed the Charter are: Bethel, Bristol, Bolton, Charlotte, Granby, Hinesburg, Huntington, Isle La Motte, Lincoln, Marlboro, Marshfield, Middlebury, Monkton, Norwich, Plainfield, Randolph, Ripton, Starksboro, Warren, Weston, and Weybridge. They represent communities from
the north, south, east, west, and central part of the state.

Gwendolyn Hallsmith, coordinator of the Earth Charter Town Meeting campaign in Vermont, plans to take the endorsements to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg this coming September.
For more information please contact: Gwendolyn Hallsmith, 177 Bunker Hill Circle, Plainfield, VT 05667 Tel. (802) 454-7829, ghs@innevi.com.