The Future of the Commercial District

Zoning Update


The Planning Commission closed their public hearing on the draft Commercial District Zoning Regulations. They took no action on the draft zoning and will revisit the draft at a yet to be determined date.

The Planning Commission received an email from a Valleys Edge resident ahead of their October 8 meeting.


The Planning Commission received a written letter from Randy Clark at the September 8 pubic hearing for the draft zoning. Below is his letter with responses in RED from the PC chair.

They also received a letter from several Commerciale District land owners at the September 8 Hearing.


On June 16, 2020 the PC received a letter from Ned Dubois and several other Commercial district property owners. Below is that letter, a response to that letter from the PC chair as well as some associated email correspondence.

During the July 2 Selectboard meeting, the June 16 letter was discussed and Selectboard chair, Catherine McMains was read. That can be found in the Selectboard meeting beginning on line 49.

During the July 7 PC meeting an in person meeting was discussed. Below are the minutes with that conversation highlighted in yellow.

During their August 18 meeting, there was discussion with David Villenenuve about meeting on his property. Below are those minutes with the conversation highlighted in yellow. It involved scheduling a walk the of Commercial District to talk about future roads in the district. The meeting minutes are also below.


Some more background in the Project

The Planning Commission wrapped up the Commercial District Master Plan in August of 2019. We have this great document (click on the image on the right to view in its entirety) that explains What is next after the Master Plan. They revised the Master Plan Document in 2020 in response to community input. Click here to view the final Master Plan and supporting documents.

The Planning Commission finished their review of Town Plan amendments. The Town Plan was before the Selectboard for a public hearings on December 5 and January 2. The Selectboard approved the Town Plan changes on January 2. See more on the Town Plan amendments by clicking here.

This flow chart explains the Commercial District planning, including the CD project as well as future implementation steps moving forward.

This graphic illustrates the elements of the Master Plan vision and is what will shape changes to the Zoning Regulations as well as town policy related to the Commercial District moving forward.


Zoning Update


The Planning Commission closed their public hearing on the draft Commercial District Zoning Regulations. They took no action on the draft zoning and will revisit the draft at a yet to be determined date.

The Planning Commission received an email from a Valleys Edge resident ahead of their October 8 meeting.


The Planning Commission received a written letter from Randy Clark at the September 8 pubic hearing for the draft zoning. Below is his letter with responses in RED from the PC chair.

They also received a letter from several Commerciale District land owners at the September 8 Hearing.


On June 16, 2020 the PC received a letter from Ned Dubois and several other Commercial district property owners. Below is that letter, a response to that letter from the PC chair as well as some associated email correspondence.

During the July 2 Selectboard meeting, the June 16 letter was discussed and Selectboard chair, Catherine McMains was read. That can be found in the Selectboard meeting beginning on line 49.

During the July 7 PC meeting an in person meeting was discussed. Below are the minutes with that conversation highlighted in yellow.

During their August 18 meeting, there was discussion with David Villenenuve about meeting on his property. Below are those minutes with the conversation highlighted in yellow. It involved scheduling a walk the of Commercial District to talk about future roads in the district. The meeting minutes are also below.


Some more background in the Project

The Planning Commission wrapped up the Commercial District Master Plan in August of 2019. We have this great document (click on the image on the right to view in its entirety) that explains What is next after the Master Plan. They revised the Master Plan Document in 2020 in response to community input. Click here to view the final Master Plan and supporting documents.

The Planning Commission finished their review of Town Plan amendments. The Town Plan was before the Selectboard for a public hearings on December 5 and January 2. The Selectboard approved the Town Plan changes on January 2. See more on the Town Plan amendments by clicking here.

This flow chart explains the Commercial District planning, including the CD project as well as future implementation steps moving forward.

This graphic illustrates the elements of the Master Plan vision and is what will shape changes to the Zoning Regulations as well as town policy related to the Commercial District moving forward.


  • Public Hearing Documents

    Below are the official public hearing documents:

  • Summary of the draft CD Zoning changes

    After taking a little break and not meeting during their first August meeting, the Planning Commission met again to discuss the next draft of the Zoning. This draft is based on comment received at their July 21 meeting.

    There are very few changes in this draft and they are listed below:

    1. Definition of Shall/Must

    MUST: Is used to indicate mandatory and required and not optional or discretionary. See also SHALL. (found on pg. 12)

    SHALL: See MUST. (found on pg. 17)

    2. Definition of Encourage/Should

    ENCOURAGE: Is used to indicate strongly recommended and not mandatory. ENCOURAGE/SHOULD is used to incorporate planning recommendations from the State and the Regional Planning Commission, that have been adapted for Jericho and the goals in the Town Plan. See also SHOULD (found on pg. 6)

    SHOULD: See ENCOURAGE (found on pg. 17)

    3. Some fine tuning of the invasive species language in Section 11.8.6 (found on pg. 145). Underlined and blue-hyperlinked language is new. Crossed out language is removed:

    Planting Specifications: Plants Must shall be hardy for the climatic and other conditions in which they will be used (salt, air pollution, etc.). Trees shall preferably be of a type indigenous to the neighborhood. Plant and tree selections Must comply with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture noxious weed quarantine regulation. For all landscaping, the use of plants native to Vermont and New England is strongly Encouraged.

    The Planning Commission will discuss this draft at their next meeting, August 18. To find out more about that meeting, go to the Planning Commission page on this website.


    The Planning Commission further discussed a revised proposed draft of the regulations at their July 7 meeting. In response to further comment, further clarifying changes were made to several sections of the Zoning.

    The Planning Commission will discuss this draft at their next meeting, July 21. To find out more about that meeting, go to the Planning Commission page on this website.


    The Planning Commission discussed a new draft of the regulations at their June 16 meeting. They discussed some small changes to Section 11.9.3, regarding site layout and design. Some wording changes were also made to Section 11.1.6.3 (curbcuts now for all residential uses allowed on RT 15) and Section 11.8.4.1 (road design). All changes are red-lined.

    Email comments were received from Chuck Lacy and the PC chair responded. View that email document HERE.


    In response to comments received following the review of the May 11 draft, there is a new draft, dated June 12. Below you can see the full draft of the zoning and just the pages changed. All changes are red-lined.

    The Planning Commission will once again discuss the draft at their next meeting, June 16 at 7:00 pm. To learn more about that meeting, you can visit the Planning Commission page of this website,


    The Planning Commission received 3 sets of comments on the May 11 draft. They discussed two of them at their June 2nd meeting and the Planning Commission Chair responded to one outside of that . These letters with responses can be viewed below.


    May 11 the Draft Zoning language for the Commercial District

    Following public comment on the first round of draft edits on February 18, the draft Zoning was updated and sent to Chris Sargent, the project consultant. He has provided a edits to those comments. That new draft can be view here on this site.


    You can view the February 18 document HERE. You will notice that this is the full Land Use Regulations for Jericho. You will be able to scroll through and the changes are red lined. If you want to view a version of the February 18 document with only the pages that have changes, you can view that HERE.

  • More information about the Zoning Regulations Public Hearing

    CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.

    The Planning Commission warned their public hearing for September 8 and continued it to September 22 at 7:00 pm. This meeting will be held virtually via Zoom.

    How to Participate: Zoom is free to the public and does not require registration or log-in. Public comment at this meeting is welcomed and encouraged using the following methods:

    1. Access the Zoom meeting for free on your computer, smartphone or tablet: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88451845445. No password is required when using the above link. This method allows for video and audio connection.
    2. Call-in to the webinar: (646) 558-8656 or (301) 715-8592, enter the Zoom webinar ID #884 5184 5445, and press # when prompted. This option allows for audio only connection.
    3. MMCTV live video recording on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MMCTV15/live and live on the MMCTV local Comcast Cable Channel 1086. Note that these MMCTV options will not allow for live public comment.
    4. Email public comments ahead of time to be delivered to the PC to Katherine Sonnick, Planning Director, at ksonnick@jerichovt.gov.

    Below you will find links to the draft zoning that will be discussed at the Public Hearing as well as other related documents.

  • Zoning Phase - November - January

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    The Planning Commission is currently working with Chris Sargent, their consultant, to revise the Commercial District zoning regulations. Chris joined the Planning Commission at their meeting on November 5th to discuss the details in the Commercial District Master Plan related to desired zoning changes and possible zoning approaches to address the desired changes. Click on the image below to view the presentation Chris gave at the PC's November 4th meeting.


    A suggested approach is to implement Zoning similar to Westford's R5 zoning district, which considers the desired components in the context of a Planning and Design Standards score sheet and provides illustrations to guide the desired form of development. You can view Westford's R5 language by clicking on the image below.



    The Project consultant developed a couple of documents for the Planning Commission review and discussion for their meeting on December 3. He asked for the PC and the Advisory Committee's feedback on his suggested approach. This approach is described in these documents:

    The project consultant developed a draft of new Zoning Regulations for the Commercial district. The Planning Commission and the Advisory Committee reviewed and comment on the Draft during their December 17th meeting. These comments have been sent to their consultant for his review.




  • June 2019 Survey Results

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    Following the June 1 Open House, the Planning Commission posted surveys on this site.

    The survey questions were the same questions posed at the Open House.

    Below you can find the results of each of those surveys as well as a link to the surveys themselves:

    Do you Feel these Buildings are appropriately sized?

    Appropriate Density for the Commercial District

    Mixed Use in the Commercial District

    Uses in the Commercial District

    We also Summarized the results from the Open House and comments received outside of the Open House.

    You need to be signed in to add your comment.

  • Commercial District Draft Master Plan Discussion

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    On July 30 from 7:00 - 9:00 pm the Planning Commission will meet with their consultant, Chris Sargent to discuss the Commercial District Master Plan. As this point it is still in draft form - showing the vision of the CD landowners. Chris is incorporating the findings from the March workshop, June open house and online comments, where the public chimed in on their thoughts. The good news is that the landowners and community at large are not too far apart on their vision for the future of the district.

    Click on the links below for the latest visions of the Master Plan, Maps and additional information:

    Please join us on Tuesday July 30 for the Master Plan discussion.

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  • Open House Update

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    The Planning Commission's Commercial district Open House was a success! We saw some new faces including families (kids!). The format allowed for those in attendance to wander around at their leisure and individual Planning Commission members were able to answer individual questions and have conversations with attendances.

    People who attended were asked a few questions relative to the draft vision statement drafted through the early part of the project with the CD land owners as well as with the public during the March 2019 workshop:

    A Commercial District that creates a valuable connection
    between Jericho Village and Riverside Village;
    providing a location for mixed-use development and
    expanded commerce at an appropriate scale for the
    community which preserves rural character, the natural
    beauty of the landscape and distant views.

    We want you to be able to help us with figuring out more what this vision statement means. The questions we asked stem from the bold and underlined text above. The questions we asked have been turned into surveys on this page. You can find them on the "New Surveys" tab or click the links below to go directly to each survey:

    You can also watch this video, produced by MMCTV that leads you through the Open House, so you can see what everyone who was there saw.

    We had some special visitors join us at the Open House. The Trails Committee, the Conservation Commission, the Jericho Energy Task Force as well as the Tri-town Alternative Transportation Committee. The Planning Commission asked these committees "how the Commercial District could further the goals of their boards". You can view boards presented by the:

    The Planning Commission will meet with their consultant as well as representatives of these boards at their next meeting on June 18 and work toward wrapping up the Master Plan and vision part of the project.


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  • Commercial District Open House - June 1

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    The Planning Commission is hosting and Open House on June 1 from 9:00 am - 2:00 pm

    Stop by for just a bit or stay longer. Bring your kids! There will not be a formal presentation, but we are looking for your feedback on what we've found out from the Jericho Community so far. We also want to move the project forward by asking some new questions.

    If you're new to the project, stop by, learn more and have your say.

    If you've been a part already, stop by, tell us what you think and add more, as we take the project one step further.

    Here's an example of what we want to learn more about:

    We have crafted a draft purpose statement for the Commercial District based on community feedback. It will continue to be tweaked as we compile more info from everyone. It might even look a little different by the time you stop by the Open House. Here is the purpose statement now:

    “A Commercial District that provides a valuable connection between Jericho Village and Riverside Village, acting as a Location for mixed-use development and expanded commerce at an appropriate scale for the community, which preserves the landscape, distant views and rural landscape.”

    We will be asking for more feedback on that statement. Some questions could include:

    1. What does "connection" mean to you in this area?
    2. What kind of "mixed use" is appropriate in this area?
    3. How does "rural character" interact with density?
    4. What is "appropriate scale" in this area?
      • What type of buildings do people want to see in the CD?
      • What patterns of development do people prefer? Dense, village style? Less dense, businesses-subdivision style?

    Please feel free to leave any thoughts here on anything you've just read or if you have any questions about the Open House or the project.

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  • Mixed Use Survey Results

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    The Planning Commission posted a survey on mixed Use. They had heard the term "Mixed Use" a lot in regards to the future of the Commercial District. What is mixed use? And does it belong in an area of town that is called the Commercial District?

    View the survey results HERE

  • March 26 Workshop Summary

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    Thank you to the over 50 folks who attended the Planning Commission's workshop on the Commercial District. We had a great time discussing our hopes and dreams for the district. While there wasn't complete consensus on what the future of the district should be, there were some areas of agreement. Several items related to the Workshop are available to view and download below:

    We will be reviewing the comments received and gathering more input in the weeks to come. You can continue to engage with us on this web page. Take a quick poll, as a question, leave a comment, respond to other folk's comments, or learn more about the project and the Commercial District.

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Page last updated: 19 Sep 2023, 02:44 PM