Rutland RPC launches final public review of regional plan and future land-use map

The Rutland Regional Planning Commission on May 20 opened the final, public review phase of its regional plan update and released a draft regional future land-use map for municipal and public comment.

The commission’s executive director, Devin Neri, said the commission will begin a formal public review of the full, laid-out draft in June and asked commissioners and municipal officials to help spread the word. "We will not kick off task 4," Neri said, describing the current revision process, "and task 4 is the absolute last revision to the regional plan in totality before it goes to our graphic designer for layout." Neri said the commission expects the layout version to be available to commissioners before the June meeting.

The review window is narrow because, Neri said, the current regional plan expires next June and the commission must submit the adopted plan to the state land-use review authority this fall. The commission is operating on a schedule that calls for a September informal pre-adoption from the RPC board, submission for state prereview in October, and then the formal six-month public hearing and adoption timeline required by state review processes.

Neri framed the work as the third phase of engagement, called "alignment," and said staff have met with 25 of 27 towns to date. He described three layers of materials for public review: a high-level graphic summary intended to communicate plan highlights quickly, one-page chapter summaries for readers who want more detail, and the full draft chapters and maps for those pursuing deeper review. The commission also published an interactive ArcGIS future land-use map and related PDFs on its website, Neri said.

Neri asked towns to return comments on a three-week turnaround for the draft maps, noting the compressed timetable is driven by the expiration and required review cycle of the existing plan. He described the commission’s outreach to municipal officials — including recorded trainings and a survey — and said staff will hold 10–15 pop-up tabling events across the region in June to gather more feedback.

Neri said the commission has run an extensive engagement program across the three-year plan process, with more than 200 town meetings or events to date. He also noted the procedural change: in prior cycles only the RPC board had to approve the plan; under the state law cited in the meeting, the state land-use review authority will also prereview and comment on the draft. "They have 60 days to review and comment on our plan," Neri said of the state review authority.

Commissioners voiced general appreciation for staff outreach and involvement in public meetings; no formal vote or board action on adoption occurred at the meeting. Neri encouraged municipal officials and commissioners to direct residents to the commission website for the survey and draft materials.

The commission plans to finalize the draft for pre-adoption at its September meeting and then proceed to state prereview and the subsequent public hearing process required for adoption.

The regional plan update discussion followed staff reports on training and project work including municipal Act 181 training (as described by staff), workforce events and grant opportunities, and staffing changes. Staff said materials, recordings and chapter summaries will appear on the RPC website along with the interactive map and instructions for commenting.