BRATTLEBORO — Raise your hand if you can name all four of Brattleboro's commercial districts?
Not sure? Well, you're not alone.
For the record they include Canal Street, West Brattleboro, The North End (a.k.a. Putney Road) and Downtown. And although some of the districts have their own master plans focused on issues of development and economic health, the town has only begun integrating these road maps into the overall Town Plan.
As part Plan Brattleboro 2011, the town's effort to write a new Town Plan, the Brattleboro Planning Commission is hosting a public meeting on Monday, Jan. 31.
Town Planning Director Rod Francis said the town planners are working in conjunction with Roger Hawk of Hawk Planning Resources in Concord, N.H.
They want to build an “overall strategy aimed at defining market niches for each of the districts” ensuring individual district master plans are complementing each other rather than competing.
He said the plans aren't working well together at the moment and the Planning Commission wants to develop a coherent, complementary relationship between them and the Town Plan.
The goal of this first meeting, which will run from 6:30-8:30 p.m., at the Marlboro College Graduate School is to review and seek public input on the individual district plans and their long-term viability.
Hawks is reading all of Brattleboro's plans, and will provide the audience with insight into where the plans are working with or against each other.
A second meeting will examine the current economic markets and develop the implementation strategy.
Space in Room 2 East at the Marlboro Graduate School is limited, so pre-registration is requested. RSVP to 802-251-8107 or [email protected], and call or e-mail if auxiliary aids or services, such as interpreters for the deaf of hard of hearing, are needed. The room is handicapped accessible.