Home Town News & Announcements

BCRC Presents a Commercial Sites Inventory and Assessment for South Shaftsbury

Posted: February 6, 2025

SHAFTSBURY - The Select Board is looking for ways to boost business development in the part of town.

Scott Grimm-Lyon, regional planner with the Bennington County Regional Commission (BCRC), presented a commercial sites inventory and assessment for the South Shaftsbury area at Monday's Select Board meeting.

"The goals of the project, as was outlined in our contract, were to continue the forward momentum of the municipality's recent efforts to invest in a village center," he said. The goals include determining where potential for commercial development exists within the approximate borders of the town's village center.

"This was a response to the (town's) ARPA survey that called for a vibrant and active commercial area," Grimm-Lyon said. "And so the other purpose of this was to help develop resources for your economic development committee to use in their ongoing work."

The BCRC did a business inventory and an analysis of South Shaftsbury. Staff interviewed business owners, and identified properties in the area that have development possibilities.

South Shaftsbury is a census-designated place and the largest settlement in the town.

The population is 681, which is down nearly 100 people from 2000. There are 279 households, 24 percent of them have children under 18 and 64 percent of them have seniors over the age of 65. The median age is 47.The population density is 300 people per square mile.

"South Shaftsbury has substantially lower income than the rest of than the town as a whole," he said.

In total, BCRC identified 32 businesses. These include 10 in home services; six in business services; four were in healthcare, childcare, or senior care; three in warehousing; two in automotive services; and two retail establishments.

"Most of the businesses in the South Shaftsbury area are part of the service industry. A large number of them are home businesses operated by people out of the home, possibly second-income business," Grimm-Lyon said.

BCRC conducted interviews with the owners of eight businesses: Myers Prouty, Shaftsbury Country Store, Scott's A Plus Auto Repair, Peckham/Dailey Precast, T&M Enterprises, KCM Oil, Body Blend Studio, and Alternatives Plus. Most of the business owners were from the community and engaged in it.

"These people choose to be here, and when you talk about where they would like to expand, many say that they want to expand within the town, and are looking specifically to expand within the town," Grimm-Lyon said. "They like the existing community character."

The business owners would like to see sidewalks and other improvements at the key intersection of Buck Hill Road with Route 7A. The intersection of Church Street with Route 67E was seen as difficult, especially if a higher volume of delivery trucks were to use it.

The business owners generally felt the town was supportive but a number were frustrated with the town's signage regulations.

"No one was particularly upset at the town, in a way that I've experienced while talking to other business owners in the past" in other municipalities," he said.

Speeding on Route 7A was almost universally seen as a problem, and a number of those spoken to would like to see a town sewer installed.

The town has a committee studying the possibility of installing a sewer system.

The next phase of the study was to look at properties with development potential in South Shaftsbury.

"We examined 109 parcels. That was the area that's within the village center district, and then the abutting areas. We looked at a number of data points, including the flood map, wetlands slope," Grim-Lyon said. "We looked at existing zoning, we looked at the potential that the town has already given to these spaces, and then we also looked at walkability."

They identified 15 lots of interest within three categories. "This is largely an exercise in imagination, trying to balance these with market environmental realities," he said. "Private property rights are are a real concern. And you know, the idea is to give private property owners voluntary options that they can consider."

Grimm-Lyon also noted the critical need for housing as a factor in play in question of property development.

In the category of large lots, he spoke of four properties: 372 Route 67E — the Eagle Square site; 1076 Route 7A; 677 Route 7A; 566 Route 7A. Select Board Chair Naomi Miller noted that 677 Route 7A is the site of a former doctor's building the town hopes to purchase for a new town office.

BCRC identified the following sites for potential infill or outbuilding development: 41 Church St., 72 Buck Hill Road, 782 Route 7A, 616 Route 7A, 535 Route 7A.

"There's not a ton of infill capacity because we have extremely small lots in this area, but a number of buildings have side buildings that they that may act or potentially be converted," Grimm-Lyon said.

The study identified prime intersection lots located around the intersection of Buck Hill Road and Route 7A: 969 Route 7A, 21 Buck Hill Road, 41 Buck Hill Road, 31 Buck Hill Road, 938 Route 7A, 0 Buck Hill Road.

"You often want to identify your prime intersection within a business district, and then then sort of make sure that that is a thriving area, and then from that other growth can happen," he said. "So that's the reason why we focused on this particular intersection."

He said it's unfortunate that three of the four corners of the intersection are not developed now.

The study determined the likelihood of certain types of growth in South Shaftsbury:

Retail Opportunities: High – Neighborhood Goods and Services. Moderate: Food and Beverage. Low: General Merchandise, Apparel, Furnishings and Other.

Industry Opportunities: High – Warehousing. Moderate: Manufacturing. Slight: Innovation Hub.

"We do think there's still lots of opportunity for growth, despite there not necessarily being a lot of retail and industry opportunities, and that's largely and continuing to lean into Shaftsbury as being a service hub and a service industry hub — and also as a place where people who want to own their own businesses, run their own businesses," he said.

Grimm-Lyon will be presenting more information to the Shaftsbury Economic Development Committee next week, and that body will report back to the Select Board in March.

Compliments of: The Bennington Banner
Posted/Author: Mark Rondeau

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