There are three articles below on student presentations, scroll down to read each article
- STUDENTS TO PRESENT RACE TRACK RESEARCH
- Williams College Students Propose Plans For Defunct Race Track
- Students: Industry or recreation at Pownal track site
STUDENTS TO PRESENT RACE TRACK RESEARCH
By Keith Whitcomb Jr., New England Newspapers
Posted: 12/15/2011 12:18:50 AM EST
Thursday December 15, 2011
POWNAL, Vt. — Four Williams College students who have studied and taken public opinion surveys on the former Green Mountain Race Track will present their findings at 7 p.m. today in the Pownal Elementary School gym.
Williams College environmental studies professor Sarah Gardner said majors in her field, in order to graduate, must take an environmental planning course.
She said each semester she identifies four to five planning projects and assigns a handful of students to each. Gardner said students Wade Davis, Chad Lorenz, Julio Luquin and Evalynn Rosado have spent this semester studying the former Green Mountain Race Track, just off Route 7 a few miles from the Pownal/Williamstown border; surveying the public; and talking to town planning boards.
Gardner said the goal was to develop a plan for the site that will benefit it economically and environmentally. The students are interested in both presenting their findings, as well as getting more feedback from the town.
She said the site was chosen because of the various discussions held in recent years on the site’s use, and the plan was enacted with the full cooperation of the owner, Progress Partners, LLC. Gardner said the company is interested in having a plan for the site so it can develop it.
The former track was a hot topic over the summer because of a proposal by Beaver Wood Energy, LLC, a Maine company, to build a 29.5 megawatt biomass facility that would have also produced wood pellets for heating fuel. The project met with stiff resistance and skepticism from locals as well as residents of Williamstown, including the college. Beaver Wood announced it would no longer further its state permit application for the project in Pownal, but would continue it in Fair Haven where it proposed a similar plant.
Reception in that town has been more favorable, and the state had put limits on the amount of biomass power it would require utilities to buy, limiting Beaver Wood’s options.
At a Planning Commission meeting last month, the four students were present to solicit opinions from commissioners and to inform them of their intentions. They reported a number of people surveyed have expressed interest in seeing the site become an entertainment venue.
A casino was proposed at the track a number of years ago, but that idea was crushed by state and local opposition. Progress Partners has, in the past, floated ideas involving housing and light industry.
Aside from the grandstand hosting the occasional large event, the only project to gain any real momentum has been a 2.2 megawatt solar facility put forward by EOS Ventures, a Massachusetts company. All the permits for that project have been approved and the company has said it plans to begin construction next year.
VPR News
Williams College Students Propose Plans For Defunct Race Track
Thursday, 12/15/11 12:04pm
Susan Keese
The site, unused for years, covers 149 acres of riverfront land on the borders of Massachusetts and New York.
(Host) The future of the long-defunct Green Mountain Race Track in Pownal got a close look this fall from a group of environmental planning students at nearby Williams College.
They’ll present their findings to the public tonight. Professor Sarah Gardner teaches the course.
She says the track property became a hot topic last year when a large biomass and wood pellet facility was proposed.
Neighboring Williamstown, Mass., residents opposed the proposal. But Gardner acknowledges that the 149-acre track is Pownal’s biggest developable property.
(Gardner) “We know that Pownal could really use some development, they could use the jobs and the tax revenue. So it stands out as a property that has a lot of potential.”
(Host) Four Williams students interviewed local residents, town officials and the property’s owners and conducted their own research.
Gardner says the students recommended retail activity for a portion of the land bordering Route 7.
Among the recommendations for the stadium-sized track building is a food processing facility that would help promote locally grown food.
The students will present their findings tonight at seven at the Pownal Elementary School.
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Students: Industry or recreation at Pownal track site
Posted: 12/16/2011 10:35:09 PM EST
Friday December 16, 2011
KEITH WHITCOMB JR.
Staff Writer
POWNAL — Something in the style of Vermont Composites or a family friendly recreation center would be the ideal fit for developing the former Green Mountain Race Track, according to a study conducted by four Williams College students as part of an environmental planning course.
Presentation to public
The students made their presentation Thursday at the Pownal Elementary School gym to a crowd of about 30 people, including the track’s owners and local officials.
Student Chad Lorenz said one of things he and the others did was study the site itself, take into account local and state development regulations, and survey the community on what its needs are and what people would like to see at the former race track.
He said part of the reason the site was chosen for a development plan was because of the controversy this past year surrounding a 29.5-megawatt biomass and wood pellet manufacturing facility that was proposed there by a Maine company. The firm has since put the project on indefinite hold and will instead focus on a sister project in Fair Haven.
Evalynn Rosado, another student presenter, said the surveys taken were more akin to interviews and also took into account demographics in Pownal. Of those surveyed, many commute between 20 and 25 minutes to work outside the town, while 53 percent do their shopping in Bennington.
According to presenter Wade Davis, in 1964 when the site was a functioning horse racing track and was valued at $35 million. Today the value is just under $1 million, and if it were to go back to its former value, property taxes would decrease by 6 percent. Currently, the municipal tax rate for Pownal is approximately 44 cents per $100, above the county average of .37 cents.
The students examined five ideas for the site with an eye toward job creation and low environmental impacts. To rank the ideas, they used a “benefit matrix,” which is a chart that identifies areas of impact, both positive and negative, and ranks them on a scale from one to five. Something that creates many jobs would rank a five in the positive category, while a proposal with a large, negative impact to the environment would subtract five points, leaving a total score.
Scoring the lowest was housing, an idea that has been brought up in the past. Davis said statistics from the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Affairs show a need for affordable housing in the state, as well as Pownal. According to his data, the average renter in Bennington County can afford $553 in rent per month, but the average rent on a two-bedroom unit is $904.
The drawbacks to housing are that it creates no long-term jobs and was not identified by the community members surveyed as a desire. Developers would also require tax incentives to want to build.
Second lowest on the list was an aquaponics facility, which would involve plants grown in water or a fish farm, said Julio Luquin, one of the presenters. He said in the same vein, the site could host a slaughter house or meat processing plant, something the state also has a shortage of. Such a project would create jobs, but they would be specialized and there would be some environmental challenges to consider.
Rosado said a large number of people surveyed, 30 percent, said they would like to see a casino or similar project at the track. Having been a such a facility before, the existing grandstand has much of the needed infrastructure. Some drawbacks include public resistance to casinos and the fact that Massachusetts has passed legislation authorizing three such facilities to be built, which would compete with Pownal. A casino or similar resort would also put stresses on transportation infrastructure.
Running second to manufacturing was recreation, according to the students. One suggestion was a “sports dome,” which could easily be adapted to the site, but it would rely on regional support and the quality of the jobs would be low, likely part-time or seasonal.
Light manufacturing topped the list, said Davis, in that it would provide jobs, would have a relatively low environmental impact, and could be fit in with the nearby railroad service and Route 7.
Chad Lorenz, a presenter, said people should remember each idea is not mutually exclusive, nor are their findings a definite action plan.
Frank Cantatore, a principal of Progress Partners LLC, the company that owns the track, said he felt the students’ findings are helping in gauging what the community would be receptive to, however it offers no clear direction. He said that is the issue with “blank pallets” such as the track.
“Part of the problem we’ve had is focus,” said Cantatore, adding that he hopes the 2.2- megawatt solar facility that has been approved for construction there will serve as both an anchor to keep the bills paid and as something that will direct developers’ energy to the site for future projects.
The students said they would be making their presentation available online in the near future, and Rep. Bill Botzow, D-Pownal, volunteered to help distribute the URL when it became available.
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