College Lands Comprehensive Plan
Middlebury College is crafting a ground plan for the 3,000 acres of College lands in the Champlain Valley, and we are engaging a broad array of thought partners to help envision opportunities. An overview is provided here and for more comprehensive information, head to our ACRPC page.
Lands Planning Survey
Your visions, values, questions, and considerations are a critically important piece of the lands planning process. We invite you to take this survey to share your thoughts and contributions!
A Community Effort
The planning does not include the residential or commercial structures and lots, but instead comprises land that is used both privately and by the general public for a variety of purposes, including agriculture, recreation, forest products, and nature conservation. As a College, a primary use of our lands is, and will continue to be, teaching and research. For more comprehensive information, head to our ACRPC page.
College land-use decisions are guided by the Land Stewardship Initiative, which encourages us to recognize and consider the multiple values and numerous potential uses of the land. During our planning process, we will be seeking input from the public—both individually and through local and regional organizations—to help us understand opportunities and potential uses of these lands. At the end of the process, we plan to share the information we’ve gathered with the general public via a new interactive website.
Long-Term Vision with Multiple Perspectives
Our comprehensive planning considers long-term, large-vision thinking. Based on both societal values and biophysical capacities of land, a broad range of perspectives will be considered in the plan. Uses of land, and potential uses, at their best, consider human desires and needs along with the importance of land and water for all life systems and organisms.
Our public information gathering will give us a broad view of values that our local communities and citizens perceive for these 3,000 acres. We are also interested in understanding organizational and individual visions and ideas, and we look forward to hearing firsthand ideas about these lands. In this sense, and by reading the land itself, we are striving to be as comprehensive as currently practicable.
How We’ll Use the Lands Comprehensive Plan
The plan is neither a template for actions nor a design to dictate or prescribe specific management decisions. Rather, it provides us with analyses and recommendations. As we examine the biophysical and social aspects of the different parts of the landscape, we will analyze various alternatives for each parcel and present recommendations in a several decades-long timeframe (a typical timeframe for master plans).
Project goals: Support informed and transparent decision-making for College Lands in the Champlain Valley of Vermont. Provide a unified platform for College Lands data.
Timeline: The comprehensive planning process began in August 2023 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
Outreach process and timing: During April and May 2024, listening sessions will be held and a web-based survey will be available.
Who: Lands Advisory Committee and Addison County Regional Planning Commission staff members Hannah Andrew, Deron Rixon, and Adam Lougee.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q What is the College lands comprehensive plan?
Our plan will look at every parcel of “undeveloped” land the College holds in and around Middlebury and document current uses and values, including agricultural, recreational, scenic, wildlife connectivity, nature conservation, teaching, and research. We will look at biophysical characteristics such as soils, hydrology, and position in the landscape, along with town and county plans, Vermont regulations and policy directives, and New England regional initiatives. By the end of the process, we plan to have an information-rich database of our landholdings that will consider a variety of perspectives and societal values, and guide future decisions about the variety of alternatives and uses. We expect to share much of this information through a new, interactive website.
Q How much land does Middlebury College have in Vermont?
Middlebury landholdings in the state total approximately 6,000 acres. This project, however, will only include about 3,000 acres in the Champlain Valley, primarily in Middlebury, Cornwall, and Weybridge, with much smaller amounts in New Haven and Bristol. This planning will not include residential and commercial parcels that currently have buildings and development.
Q Why is the College not including Bread Loaf area lands or the Snowbowl in this plan?
The lands of Bread Loaf campus and the Rikert Outdoor Center already have a plan in place. A conservation easement held by Vermont Land Trust (VLT) determines the uses allowable on 1,400 acres of those lands, and a land trade with the Forest Service is in process which will add acreage to the easement and result in permanent conservation of over 2,000 acres of college land in Ripton and East Middlebury. A management plan approved by VLT has been written for all of the lands governed by the easement and must be updated every 10 years.
The lands of the Snowbowl are not included, as we expect no changes in the land use of the College’s alpine ski area.
Q Why are you creating this comprehensive plan now?
Development of this plan follows several years of work done in accordance with the College’s Land Stewardship Initiative, which directs us to examine the landholdings through multiple perspectives. The new comprehensive plan will present all the parcels through a public-facing website and it will help inform future decisions about College lands.
Q Does this mean you'll be selling off land soon?
No. Although the College sells and acquires properties on a regular basis to help serve its educational mission, the goal of the plan is to gather, coalesce, and analyze a broad range of information and data about the landscape, societal visions and values, and potential land uses to help systematically inform future land management decisions.
Q How does the public use Middlebury lands?
The College welcomes public use of most of the landholdings throughout Addison County. None of the land is posted. Many people enjoy the recreational uses, including hiking on the Middlebury Area Land Trust’s Trail Around Middlebury (TAM), snowmobiling on trails managed by the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers (VAST), and biking on trails maintained in partnership with Addison County Bike Club. Roughly 1,500 acres of field are leased to local farmers. Portions of the lands are utilized for renewable electricity generation, and other areas are permitted for commercial and industrial development in the industrial park area. Additionally, hunters and wildlife-watchers regularly use the lands and many acres contribute to cherished views.
Q Why are you seeking public input to this plan when the land is all privately owned?
Land use choices involve tradeoffs; some uses are complementary and some cannot be met on the same site. We know that land provides many community values and that governmental and private groups have developed visions, plans, and initiatives related to land use. These visions include housing, economic development, nature conservation, food and farming, protection from natural hazards, and justice. In order to map such ideas onto specific lands, we need thought partners—people who, like us, think and care deeply about land in our communities. We recognize that best outcomes are developed when there is an open flow of communication and discussion of multiple perspectives. It is not usual for private landowners to seek broad public input in land-use planning, but we know that these lands hold historical, current, and future importance to our communities. Therefore, we are reaching out broadly—to town bodies such as selectboards, planning and conservation commissions; recreational groups; agricultural and food systems communities; and BIPOC and social justice groups. We are also seeking input from individuals in our communities.
Q What kind of input are you seeking, and how can I provide input?
While maps do capture some of the societal values of specific land areas, many ideas, visions, and opportunities are not mapped onto the land. For instance, we can consult maps with town zoning, river corridors, priority forest patches, prime agricultural soils, and recreational trails. We do not, however, have maps to help us understand specifics about applying, for example, the New England Food Vision or recommendations of the Land Access Opportunity Board. We do not know if organizations or individuals have envisioned and discussed ideas for the future of specific land parcels. We want input so we can document all the ideas offered and consider the possibilities of any of these lands to contribute to broader needs and visions, now and in the future.
Q What will you do with the input you receive?
All input will be discussed and evaluated by the planning team and will help inform the crafting of recommendations related to land parcels or areas. Blending the public input with the biophysical land data and currently available maps from the State of Vermont and various organizations, we will develop an interactive map that will be available as a web-based resource and will help guide future land-use discussions and decisions.
Q How do I learn more?
Check out our ACRPC page for more comprehensive information and/or contact Marc Lapin, College Lands Conservationist, if you have further questions. lapin@middlebury.edu