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Board approves regional project priority list amid questions about urban concentration
Summary
The CCRPC approved its twice‑yearly regional project priority list for submission to the regional development corporation, while members questioned whether the top‑10 ranking was overly concentrated in Burlington and other dense municipalities and asked staff to monitor geographic distribution.
The Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission approved its regional project priority (RPP) list at the May 20 meeting and agreed to submit the top ten projects to the Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation (GBIC).
Taylor explained the list is now reviewed twice a year and staff scored projects primarily on economic development readiness and likely regional impact; he said many high‑scoring projects clustered in Burlington, Winooski and South Burlington because they were shovel‑ready and had stacked funding. A board member asked for visibility into projects ranked 11–20 for context on near‑term contenders.
Jeff expressed concern about an apparent urban skew — noting five of the top ten projects are in Burlington — and suggested staff consider a municipal cap on winners to improve distribution. Taylor said staff would follow up with GBIC and consider a cap (for example three or four projects per municipality) to encourage geographic fairness while recognizing readiness and funding leverage affect scores.
The board voted to approve the RPP list as recommended; staff said they would circulate the fuller list of project applications and follow up with members on scoring criteria if requested.
