The official zoning map of Woodstock Village with the Design Review Overlay District shaded in light grey.
After more than a year of work, the Woodstock Planning Commission is getting ready to finalize an updated draft of the Village Zoning Bylaw to be considered for adoption. The work was conducted at the request of the Village Board of Trustees, with the stated goals of modernizing the bylaw, streamlining the permitting process, and bringing it into compliance with recent state statutes to enable housing production. Here is a summary of the most significant changes to the proposed bylaw:
Updates required by changes to state law
Under the proposed bylaw, areas with access to public water and sewer connections will allow up to four housing units wherever a single-unit dwelling is permitted and will allow a density of at least five units per acre. These changes are mandated by Vermont’s HOME Act, enacted in 2023 with the goal of enabling new opportunities for housing development in the most densely developed areas of the state.
Multi-unit housing moved out of “conditional use” and into “site plan review”
Multi-unit housing is a building that contains multiple, separate living units for different households, such as an apartment building. The updated bylaws help to simplify permitting for multi-unit housing by moving it from “conditional use” to “site plan review.” Conditional use is a review procedure that is more appropriate when the proposed use is sensitive or may be unsuited for a particular area, like a child-care center or industrial facility. Site plan review is better when the use is clearly appropriate for the district–like multi-unit housing in a zoning district described as “high-density residential.” Compared to Conditional Use review, Site Plan review is a more objective process that typically sets a few simple requirements for the layout of proposed developments, which help ensure smooth traffic flow and integration with the surrounding built environment.
Updates to the Design Review Process
The Design Review Overlay District is an additional set of regulations that applies in addition to the regulations of the base zoning districts–see the map included here. The standards of this district regulate building design to protect the architectural, historical, and aesthetic assets of the Village. In the proposed bylaw revisions, the Planning Commission has re-drafted the standards to be clearer and improve usability for applicants. The new standards allow applicants to request an expedited design review conducted by the Administrative Officer, instead of the full Development Review Board, provided their design meets a certain set of stricter, objective criteria. Projects with more unique design elements may still opt to go through the full design review procedure conducted by the Development Review Board, which largely follows the same procedure that is currently used for design review.
New subdivision standards
Subdivision is the partitioning or dividing of a parcel of land to create separate lots. The current village bylaw has no subdivision standards. In 2024, Vermont passed legislation (Act 181) that allows certain housing developments to be exempt from Act 250 review, which can be an arduous process. To be eligible for exemption, bylaws need to have subdivision standards. Essentially, with a subdivision standard, the Village will now be eligible to apply for “Tier 1B” status, exempting housing developments up to a certain number of units from Act 250 review, helping to encourage housing development.
What is next for the proposed bylaw
The Planning Commission is expected to finalize its hearing draft within the next few months. They will then warn a public hearing to gather input on the proposed changes, after which they will consider whether to incorporate any further changes and vote to advance the draft to the Village Trustees. The Trustees then review the bylaw from the Planning Commission and hold a warned public hearing of their own. They can then vote to adopt the bylaw after this hearing, or they can make changes and hold another hearing.
The updated bylaws are intended to increase new housing and development, which helps to grow the town’s Grand List, making additional investments in public infrastructure more financially feasible. Harry Falconer, our town’s Shared Energy Coordinator (SEC), has been working with the Planning Commission on drafting the proposed zoning updates. Harry’s role is run through the Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission (TRORC), and he works closely with Sustainable Woodstock’s Executive Director to implement and manage energy efficiency and electrification projects in town. Many thanks to Harry and to the Planning Commission for their work on the bylaw updates.