Town of Essex is in the works of creating a new town plan

ESSEX, Vt. (WCAX) - The time for Essex to update their town plan for 2024 has come around once again.

The last time the town had an updated plan done it was in 2016.

The town will be holding periodic meetings at different locations throughout the month of January.

Those attending are curious to see what’s next for the town.

“Well I guess I really wanted to see where our town center and how we were going to grow that. If we are going to grow that. Did we have sewer capacity to do that? Where are we heading in the next twenty years?” said long time resident Laurie DeCapua.

Things like climate change, agricultural lands, conservation recreation, zoning and infrastructure were talked about.

“Conservation of forests. We can also talk about ag-lands. We can sort of combine these two,” said Essex Conservation Trail Committee member Ken Signorello.

The town wanted to hear from regular people on which items should be prioritized during the next five to ten years.

Things like housing, bussing for schools, more trails to walk on and protecting wildlife were all important to the group.

“It’s a whole new opportunity for Essex Town to really focus on what makes us special now. The huge amount of acreage that we have that is still rural has to include keeping things wild. Keeping things productive, keeping the landscapes working but also beautiful,” said Senator Irene Wrenner.

Residents that have lived in the town for a long time like Decapua are looking forward to having their own path now that they are separated from the Junction.

“All the energy has been put into the Junction for the 35 years that we have lived here. Which has been fine, but now if we are going to separated. We really need to know who we are. What it will look like, I mean we have done some things we have really done nicely. Like senior housing near Hannafords,” explained Decapua.

If you’re interested in attending one of the meetings: https://essexvt.org/townplan2024

Copyright 2023 WCAX. All rights reserved.