Between the subdivision restrictions of Act 250, wastewater permitting, and town zoning, it’s much easier (legally-speaking) to build a vacation house on 10 acres of pristine woods than it is to build missing middle housing in town and village centers. The irony is that this encourages and incentivizes sprawl as people build further afield, have big lot sizes (for non-ag use), and clear cut forest to establish views.

I waited two years for fiber and I’m only a mile and a half north of downtown Barre.

The vote was 51% to 49% so there’s a very healthy amount of skepticism about it. I voted against because a lot of the appeal of an institution like VSECU was that it’s not a big bank. The merger also diminishes competition between institutions, which in a small market like Vermont probably harms consumers in the long run. Also, and not for nothing, it’s unclear (at least to me) how this benefits ordinary members.