To: Governor Peter Shumlin, Town of Hartford Selectboard, Town of Hartford Planning Commission, Two Rivers Ottauquechee Regional Commission, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Vermont House Natural Resources and Energy Committee

We, the undersigned residents of Hartford and surrounding communities, support the vitality of downtown White River Junction, Quechee village, and the other villages in Hartford. We also support smart land use and the preservation of a regional wildlife corridor and prime agriculture land. For these reasons and more, we continue to oppose the development of Quechee Highlands at I-89 Exit 1 - a project in violation of guidelines set forth by the regional planning commission and the Hartford Master Plan. 

Instead of suburban-style sprawl at the interstate, we favor development of unused and under-utilized non-agricultural land in existing village centers.  Our five village centers are historically residential, cultural, and business hubs with aesthetic charm but suffer from, among other things, economic dilution caused by places like Route 12A in West Lebanon. Quechee Highlands – smack in between White River Junction and Quechee – would add to that dilution.

The newest generation of workers doesn't want the sprawl model anyway. As a whole, they buy fewer cars than past generations and opt to live in lively dense walk-able, bike-able mixed-use neighborhoods close to transit. But a mixed-use development in the middle of a farm field, far from any Advance Transit route and the culturally rich downtowns of Quechee and White River Junction, and on a decidedly un-walkable and un-bikeable and generally unsafe Route 4, doesn’t fit this model. It simply pays lip service to it.

In addition, the Quechee Highlands parcel is prime agricultural land and part of a  contiguous regional wildlife corridor.

In the interest of Hartford and its surrounding communities, we request that you withdraw any support of Quechee Highlands and that you appeal Judge Thomas Walsh’s decision to overturn the 2013 rejection of the Quechee Highlands proposal by the Act 250 Commission.

Thank you.