The Burlington Free Press reports that the Energy and Environmental Coordinating Committee (E2C2) was appointed by Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss to find ways to improve Burlington's air quality and reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions. E2C2 plans to give their recommendations to the Burlington City Council tonight. Their recommendations include:

• "Continued city encouragement to promote walking, bicycling and a reduction in the number of single-occupant vehicles."
  
• "Faster bus service on major city routes to give car drivers an alternative way to get to work."
  
• "An increase in the percentage of vegetable blend in the city's vehicle fleet and creation of a local source for that bio-diesel blend."
  
• "Creation of parking lots or garages at Interstate 89 Exit 14 and near the Interstate 189-U.S. 7 intersection, to help minimize the number of cars downtown."
  
• Creation of "a streetcar line reaching from the city's outskirts on the north and south to the downtown."
  
• Allowing "trash haulers to bid for exclusive contracts for city districts, which the committee says could reduce garbage-truck traffic."

Link to article

Vermont Public Radio reports that Vermonters for a Sustainable Population, a citizens' group concerned with overpopulation, says that "Vermont is headed in an unsustainable direction"; that "development and energy consumption are hurting the environment"; and that these "trends could lead to the loss of many qualities of life for which Vermont is known." According to a report entitled "Disappearing Vermont,'' which the group recently released, the state's population has grown by 40 percent since 1970. The report also said that this population growth has "play[ed] a part in rising real estate prices, longer commutes and global climate change."

Link to article

The Times Argus reports that the "Chittenden County Transportation Authority (CCTA) has seen a 29 percent increase in riders on the Montpelier—Burlington Link since last July." According to Meredith Birkett, Senior Transit Planner with the CCTA, "We can't tell exactly why more people are on the bus" but "the increased ridership is helping us make a case for more funding for more routes." Some have attributed the increase in ridership to the price of fuel and the frequency and severity of snowstorms.

Link to article

The Burlington Free Press reports that the Williston Planning Commission will consider proposed changes to the development bylaws that will significantly increase the transportation impact fees charged on new developments from $300 to $2,824 per PM-peak-hour-vehicle-trip-end.

The transportation impact fee is a fee charged to new developers that is designed to offset the cost of traffic improvements, such as new traffic signals, new pedestrian crossings, new roads, and road maintenance, that are needed in order to meet the transportation needs generated by new developments. The fee for each new development is calculated by using the "PM-peak-hour-vehicle-trip-end," a the measure that "estimates how much traffic a [new] development will generate at peak traffic hours."

Notably, the proposed $2,824 fee was calculated in a transportation impact fee study finalized in November by consultant Michael Munson and Resource Systems Group. The current $300 fee has been in place since 2001.

Link to article

The Brattleboro Reformer reports that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has recognized the town of Brattleboro with the title "Community of the Month in Region One" for passing an interim zoning ordinance that limits development in certain areas along the Whetstone Brook. The zoning regulations, which were extended for another 18 months in January, are "intended to reduce the threat of flooding along [the] river corridor." The ordinance will give "the state and the Windham County Conservation District time to finish a geomorphic study of the river corridor." The study "will define flood hazard areas and flood plains in the Whetstone Brook corridor" and, once finished, "will guide the town in crafting permanent ordinances along the brook."

According to Barry Cahoon, rivers program manager for the state's Department of Environmental Conservation, Brattleboro's "pattern of development has contributed to a very elevated flood hazard and an expenditure of public and private funds responding and recovering from floods."

Link to article