Planning Commission

Meets 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month at 7 PM.

The Planning Commission serves as leaders of the community on planning matters. Based on the input the public provides, the Planning Commission conducts its primary responsibilities of preparing and amending the Town Plan and the town’s land-use regulations (zoning and subdivision). The commission holds discussion sessions and public hearings to determine whether our current regulations are meeting our present and future needs, and whether they align with new state regulations concerning land use.  

We meet 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month at 7 to 9 PM. Meetings may be fully remote on Zoom or may be hybrid, with an in-person presence in the Town Center Meeting Room as well as on Zoom.  Please check the meeting date and the agenda to see what type of meeting will be held and what is to be discussed. This information will be posted 5 days prior to the meeting, and often there will be additional materials for you to look at before the meeting. The public is invited to attend any of our meetings and provide comments at any stage of our deliberations. You may also view the video recordings of our meetings (at MMCTV) and email us your comments. 

Update for March 2025

Richmond’s Town Plan is due for an update! Town Plans must be revoted every 8 years to stay current and allow for the adoption of zoning bylaws and capital budgets. The Plan that Richmond voters approved in 2018, based on extensive outreach and visioning work, has held up well, and likely only needs minor changes to continue to meet our needs. But we would like to hear from you!

We are looking to recruit one to three members of the public to join several members of the Planning Commission as a steering committee to guide this work. We anticipate meeting every few weeks from now until this time next year. Working with our Director of Planning and Zoning, Keith Oborne, we will consider methods of outreach; we will review the changes suggested by the relevant town committees and parties responsible for the “Goals” and “Action Items” in the current Plan; we will look at new state statutes that we may need to incorporate in our plan, and we will gather input on how our needs may have changed since 2018. We hope to have a draft by the late summer-fall, and a final version by the end of the year which we can bring to the Selectboard for a March townwide vote. We will try to walk the line between aspirational and feasible!

This is your plan, and it represents your vision of Richmond over the next 8 years. We are hoping you will help us to represent that vision. Even if you cannot fit the steering committee into your commitments just now, we are hoping you will come out to our outreach events and contact us with any ideas you might have. We will be keeping you updated on our work as often as we can. You can find the current Plan on the Town of Richmond web page under “Ordinances and Policies,” “Town Plan 2018”. Let us know what you think.

Virginia Clarke

Chair, Richmond Planning Commission vclarke@gmaavt.net

Keith Oborne

Director of Planning and Zoning koborne@richmondvt.gov

7 members – 4-year term