Town Plan 2010: Who do you want to move in next door?

The Planning Commission spent a few hours last night interviewing consultants who will be tasked with helping create the 2010 Waitsfield Town Plan. The winning bidder (we're down to two) will have a significant impact on the new Town Plan, as they will handle the lion's share of the research, writing and graphic design work.

The chosen consultant will also help with community outreach prior to the plan's creation ... meaning that they'll help the Planning Commission engage the community to encourage and gather public input. Many possible aspects of that outreach were discussed last night (open houses, q&a forums, raffle prizes, Tupperware-type parties without the Tuppeware, etc.) but the one thing that is 100% certain is that the community outreach will involve a citizen survey.

That survey ... and the results it harvests from local residents ... will be hugely instrumental in shaping the Town Plan, and subsequently, the future of Waitsfield.

But to get those survey answers, we first have to figure out what questions to ask. Make no mistake, the "methodology" (meaning what questions we ask and how we ask them) is where the rubber meets the road.

Which is where you come in.

What questions do you think we should ask on a survey of Town residents? Should we ask about roads? Should we ask about trees? Should we ask about business and where it should grow? Should we ask about recreation fields and where kids should be playing? Should we ask about wastewater, stormwater and bottled water? And what, specifically, should we ask?

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