Save the Date! June 29th

Dear faculty, friends, staff, and community members,

Please save the date of Saturday, June 29^th from 1-4pm for the next Yestermorrow Campus Master Planning community session.

This 3 hour session is open to anyone interested in learning more about the 25 year plan for Yestermorrow’s development.

Our Core Team has been hard at work this past year developing the plans for the campus, and we’re eager to share them with you and get input and ideas from the Yestermorrow community as we delve into our next steps.

Tentative agenda:

1-1:15 – Review of grounding principles for Yestermorrow’s planning process

1:15-2:00 – Update on the planning process to date, current working program and site plan

o   Field teams and what priorities are for each team, how to get involved

2:00-2:30 – Q&A

2:30-3:30 – Small group break-outs to develop strategies for achieving our principles

o   How to incorporate students into the design/build process

o   Design guidelines for the campus

o   Energy

o   Wastewater

o   Landscape and stormwater

o   Fundraising and financing

3:30-4:00 – Small group report back and next steps

Please plan to attend, and RSVP to kate@yestermorrow.org.

If you are unable to attend in person, we will be video recording the session (the first hour overview and the last hour report back) and livestreaming via our Ustream channel if you want to follow along from home.

We are actively looking for new members to join our Core Team and the field teams working on these various strategies, if you’re interested in getting involved, please email me. For updates on our master planning process, and links to all current documents, please visit http://ymmasterplanning.blogspot.com/.

Kate

CORE team minutes 5-14-13

Present: Kate, Kinny, Kathy and John 
guest: Jeff Schoellkopf

Questions around Act 250 process:

How does it get phased?

How much do we need to apply for at any given time?

What are the necessary supporting documents? (waste water)

·         Phasing

o    Sugarbush and Cobb Hill

o    Cobb Hill was a specific project

o    Sugarbush was a Masterplan

·         Detailed engineering for first phase only.

·         Each phase is subsequently approved.

·         Act 250 is a collection of requirements from different agencies.
 
There are 28 questions (ten criteria)

o    ANR

o    Local agencies, municipal

o    Wastewater, stormwater

o    Energy Code, Public Service, Efficiency VT

o    Division for Historic preservation

o    Air quality

o    Habitat

o    Aesthetics?

·         Possibly the Act 250 is not the next move.  Alternatives might be:

o    Wastewater

o    Stormwater

o    Landscape

o    Design guidelines

·         A preliminary meeting with Susan Beard, regional coordinator.

·         Conversations with the ANR, and all the relevant boards might be the next best step.

who to contact: District Five Act 250 Commission Natural Resources Board

Final Design Review Board Submissions

It may not seem like much, but today was a milestone day in our master planning process as we submitted our final site plan to the Waitsfield Design Review Board for review. For those of you who have been following this process, we have been meeting with the DRB since January 2012 to understand the new zoning regulations for the Adaptive Reuse Overlay District which we are now in. After many meetings with the DRB we have now submitted our final plans and are scheduled for their next meeting on May 28th. Once approved, this will be an overarching master plan approval for the site that will allow us to move forward with infrastructure work and all the rest of our permitting requirements. We will still need to return for DRB approval for individual buildings as they are designed, and we will continue to develop Design Guidelines to inform the design process.

Download the Executive Summary 5.1.13 (includes overarching principles, goals, and updated program)

View the site plan 5.1.13 (in particular look at Page 2- this is the most useful sheet with the full legend and labeling. Please be sure to zoom in and note that none of the new buildings have been designed, but we have designated building envelopes within which buildings can be sited, and indicated approximate footprint in terms of square footage of each.)

This plan continues to evolve and is a work in progress, but is at a point where we feel confident in moving forward. There is obviously still much work to be done!

We will be spending half of our upcoming June 29^th board meeting on next steps with Master Planning, so stay tuned for more details on that. The master planning session will be from 1-4pm and will be open to faculty, staff and interns in addition to the Board.

Many thanks to Kinny, Kathy, Robin and John Connell as active members of the Core Team who have helped us get this far (as well as Gillian and Abby, our former intern members).

CORE team minutes 3-25-13

CORE 3-25-13

Monday, March 25, 2013

8:07 AM

Robin, Kathy, Kincaid, Kate, John

Robin is present mostly to give his last input and resign.

Kathy is worried about where the library will ultimately be placed.

Proposed agenda:

·         Review of DRB process and final application

·   Master Site plan will be completed with minor modifications

·   Act 250 will be processed concurrently with the DESIGN GUIDELINES

·   These will both be resolved with the DRB prior to the first actual building application.

·   Robin pointed out that the final disposition of the library and the use of the main building after the dining has moved out need to be articulated on the map.

·         Goals for Core Team in 2013/next steps

·   Master Site plan will be completed with minor modifications

·   Act 250 will be processed concurrently with the DESIGN GUIDELINES

·   Robin asked that we organize our Field Teams under a set of SuperOrdinate Goals set by the Core Team.  This leaves the job of the CORE to …?

·   Kin would like to see the CORE shepherd the new landscaping.

·   Kate's three year business plan needs to help drive the CORE process.  At the NESEA conference she noted that what makes us unique is the ability to recruit stakeholders and skill sets from our constituency.

·   Kathy thinks all new CORE members should take the Regenerative  Design course.

·   Kin would like to see the Pentad reinforced as the action component of the CORE team (as opposed to the CORE team trying to do all the heavy lifting.)

 

  Next steps for each of the field teams:
Goals:

                                       i.      Infrastructure and Site Work (non-revenue generating)
Scheduled so the first building would go up in 2015.  A special group needs to be formed that will balance the needs of waste-water, roads, storm water, etc.  - as these things will compete for resources.

                                     ii.      Phase One Buildings (revenue generating)
Start with a dormitory.  Then would come the second dormitory.  Finally the studio/shop buildings would be undertaken. 

                                    iii.      Design Process (D'Amigos)

1. John to write up the way the Design Guidelines will help the YM designers and incorporate the design into the curriculum.

2. Perhaps this needs a Design/Builder in residence….Or a Project Manager or a School Designer.

3. Kate knows we need a Project Manager.

4. John knows we need a DESIGN/builder.  Design with assembly and building science at its service.

                                   iv.      Fund Raising and Fiscal
How much is needed for phases i, ii, iii above?

1. Jon Larsen or Bill Stutts.

·         How do we communicate our progress with the wider YM community?

·   Passage of the Master Plan will be a watershed moment that has the potential for CORE team recruiting, concept buy-in, etc.

·   Kin suggested getting Bill Reed and John Boecker to present and champion the MasterPlan to the Board and the YM community at large.

• The Board schedule may be adjusted to allow Bill and John's involvement without further cost.

·         Nominations for new core team members

Forest Management Plan

We've been working with the team from Fountains Forestry in Montpelier on a new Forest Management Plan for the Yestermorrow campus. This will help us guide our harvesting operations over the next 20+ years, identify wildlife habitat areas and how to maintain and improve them, and plan for the amount of timber that we can expect to harvest from the site for use in our campus build out.

You can download the full plan here (6.71 MB PDF).