Newport, Vermont viewed from above the lake with autumn colors.

Experts Share Zoning Best Practices for Housing Solutions

This Center webinar explored barriers to new housing development that may be present in town planning and zoning, as well as tools and techniques that communities have used to address these barriers.

In our December 10 webinar on Considerations for Housing Friendly Planning & Zoning – part of our Building the New Forest Future series – panelists with expertise in municipal zoning for the advancement of well-planned housing development shared their insights into what communities in this region can do to help address the lack of housing in their towns.

Leslie Karasin, Adirondack program director at the Center, facilitated a discussion among the three panelists who gave insight into strategies to advance lower- to middle-income housing. We recorded the discussion for you to listen to – click the link below.

Our panelists were Vanessa Farr, Regional Manager of Planning & Design Land Development of Haley Ward, Allison Hargrave-Gaddy, Principal Planner of Lake Champlain – Lake George Regional Planning Board, and Patrick Shattuck, Executive Director of Rural Edge.

You can review the presentation slides from the webinar.

The webinar started with the Center sharing its perspectives on the real challenges faced by housing developers when a town has outdated or highly limiting zoning. Leslie shared an example from a housing project that the Center is working on Tupper Lake, NY, and how she worked with the town to resolve the zoning limits.

Our panel shared tools and techniques for imagining the results of more dense zoning in town centers and hamlets, followed by solutions to update zoning in a way that can promote housing development in communities, with an emphasis on right-size zoning for each individual town. We also heard from the perspective of a housing developer who shared what they look for in a community before deciding to build housing there.

A panel discussion and an audience question and answer session followed the presentations.

We hope you enjoy the recording. Please share it with others who are interested in this topic.

Building the New Forest Future: Center Webinar Series

Building the New Forest Future is a webinar series that amplifies stories, practices, and lessons from community development, sustainable tourism, and rural economy in the Northern Forest. Read more

Staff Contact

Isabella Ronson-Amrein

Program Manager

Cell: 804-912-7145