[flu189]

With rare exception (serious weather, accident, construction) traffic really is not an issue here. In many cases you can use secondary or other back roads to reach you destination to avoid intersections controlled by signals. Commuting here is reasonable to the point where you can actually live 10, 15, or 20 miles out and still use less time than many folks in other places use to travel only a few miles.

[rem31708]

More info needed please!! Thanks....

I am still trying to do my research 'remotely' via the web, and will travel to Burlington area for the day soon. One thing I am trying to find out, which is hard to tell, from websites, is....are there any neighborhoods within 15 min of Burlington (in either Colchester, S. Burlington, Williston or the northern more reasonable parts of Shelburne) that are sort of like an old fashioned village, where you can walk to everything. I am thinking of something like Norwich Vermont, which is right near where we live now, but we can't afford the taxes there. It has a nice small village center where one might live within a mile and walk the kids to school, walk to post office, library, general store, restaurants - without crossing any huge scary roads. People there often walk or bike to school with their kids. It would be my ideal to find some place like this, while at the same time having a home with some privacy and acreage - even a larger semi wooded lot. Is there any place nearby that meets this? Obviously this is so hard to tell when doing research 'from far away'.

Being close to walking and bike paths would be IDEAL or wooded trails as we are an active family. Also the simplicity of having the kids in one elementary school K-6 or K-8 which I think are true in both shelburne or S. burlington but unfortunately not in colchester.

Thanks
Robyn

[vter]

Shelburne is really the only one I can think of off the top of my head. Hinesburg maybe as well.
Shelburne has a small village center where you can walk to shopping, schools etc. They also do have some bike paths around.
Hinesburg is a more rural community with a small village center where you can walk to the elementary/jr high and a good small grocery store.

[quickdraw]

Originally Posted by rem31708

It has a nice small village center where one might live within a mile and walk the kids to school, walk to post office, library, general store, restaurants

You'll be amazed how few towns there are like this near Burlington.

Shelburne was mentioned, but I doubt that is what you're picturing. It's near busy Rt 7 too. Hinesburg has a tiny center with a store, but again isn't one of those main st. type villages.

I can't speak for the location of schools, but Richmond is one of those nice little charming towns with a nice main st. (albeit tiny). It's twenty minutes from Burlington, right off the highway. I think they may have shuttle service
to Burlington. It's not cheap, but you might find someplace small.

We live in rural Williston. Our taxes are cheaper because the town gets
part of the sales tax from the box stores here. I'm not sure how long that's locked in for.

My wife and I used to live in a nice village where you could walk to stores, parks etc. The only town around here that would interest me in that way
is Richmond.

[rem31708]

Thanks, Quickdraw and Vter..

I am surprised as I thought towns surrounding Burlington would have town centers with a town green, etc. Many do here in central VT and most towns did in central and eastern Massachusetts where I lived before. Did they once have town centers that were somehow lost to development - or what else happened?

Near us is an old mill village that 100 years ago was home to 4 sawmills and other mills, a hotel, store, school and now has only a small (defunct) church and residential homes. There is no trace that once a thriving commercial center was there. I only learned of this by studying old town maps...

I have been told by friends living in various parts of the country that to simplify life, especially when one has young children, it's great to live somewhere within walking distance of schools, small stores, post office, library etc. I am trying to seek out such a community. I keep hearing wonderful things about Richmond and must check it out. But we'd hoped to live closer to Burlington...obviously we won't find everything we need in one location. Does anyone know why there aren't more places like this in the suburbs around Burlington?

Thanks again
Robyn

[quickdraw]

Originally Posted by rem31708

Thanks, Quickdraw and Vter..

I am surprised as I thought towns surrounding Burlington would have town centers with a town green, etc. Many do here in central VT and most towns did in central and eastern Massachusetts where I lived before.

I've said this many times on this board, the Burlington area doesn't even feel like New England to me. It looks more like upstate New York. Not only the lack of village greens, but even the architecture is different than the rest of New England.

We lived in Bristol while we were waiting for our house to be ready. Bristol
felt like New England. But it's a 45 minute commute to Burlington.

[vter]

There is a reason that people say, "Burlington is great because it is so close to Vermont"! Like Quikdraw said...Burlington does not really feel like New England.
Bristol is a GREAT suggestion, but, like mentioned, its about 45ish minutes from Burlington. Middlebury as well, but thats about an hour or maybe a little less.

[MassVt]

..I'm going to agree with VTer and say that Shelburne, at its center, is fairly quaint and is very attractive, even though you have Route 7 traffic going right through it. You could easily picture a gazebo or an old-fashioned bandstand in that area, especially near the Webb Museum.

Towns such as Richmond and Jericho have a "newer" feel to them, and have really only become prominent in the last 20 years or so; Shelburne and Charlotte seem a little more settled and older, to my eye....

[rem31708]

Thanks Vter and Massvt and 68 vette and all..

We visited yesterday with the kids. A real eye-opener. I had only been to downtown Burlington and this was our first foray into the suburbs (mostly Colchester and Shelburne but we drove down Rt 2 on the way home thru So Burlington and Williston and all the way to Richmond.)

I expected quaint small downtowns and instead there was a lot of suburbia, tract homes close together... here you have more private homes and lots. We saw one nice home in Colchester but it was right next to a shopping center. We saw one other nice home in Shelburne that was on the road to Shelburne Farms, which is gorgeous -we drove right from the farms out to that point and yacht club, beautiful and this looks more like Vermont in our region. BUT my husband would have to commute daily along RT 7 which was really sort of a nightmare. Reminded me of RT 9 in Framingham mass, or my husband said, his old home in Salem NH. It was so odd to see this beautiful tranquil neighborhood near Shelburne farms and then juxtaposed with this huge sprawl and traffic on RT 7. The realtor said there is one road you can take thru So Burl, which runs parallel to 7 which bypasses some of this...I suppose riding a bike on the bike path to work would be the better alternative.

In this area of VT (Upper Valley/Dartmouth region) they don't allow this level of development - actually it's all across the river on the NH side, in Lebanon!! So we have beautiful unspoiled hills, properties on 10 acres, etc. It's quiet and nice, but for kids, our location is too rural.

I still love Burlington but maybe will wait to move there til our kids are grown and we can get a condo right in the city. Or we also may come back and look at Williston, etc. Or we may look back to my old area in Central Massachusetts (Littleton-Acton area) where you can live in pretty rural area but commute to Boston or Worcester.

One concern about the Burlington 'burbs is that there seems to be constant development with new subdivisions going up all over. So even if you bought what you thought was a private home in a quiet location, maybe the next year you have condos right next door. As we drove thru Williston on Rt 2 you could see this - old abandoned farms, with box stores on one side and condos creeping up at the other edge of the farm.

I do have to say, though, what a gorgeous day to visit. After viewing homes we took advantage of the 70+ degree sunny weather to bike from downtown to North Beach (I wanted to go further into Colchester - next time) and back. It's just stunning there.

Cheers and thanks
Robyn

[rem31708]

Originally Posted by MassVt

..I'm going to agree with VTer and say that Shelburne, at its center, is fairly quaint and is very attractive, even though you have Route 7 traffic going right through it. You could easily picture a gazebo or an old-fashioned bandstand in that area, especially near the Webb Museum.

Hmm...I don't think we drove down far enough to see this. We went only as far as the road that goes out to Shelburne Farms...and then from there down to the elementary school. Is there a downtown south of there? We will check it next time perhaps...

I was wondering how the history of development around this city went. Why was Rt 7 developed so much when there is also a lot of shopping along RT 2 heading south - were all these shopping areas needed, or could some of it have been more concentrated? Perhaps there was not strict planning. In the Williston area of RT 2 where you could still see some old farms you could get a sense of what that area looked like 40, 50 years ago...when was Rt 7 developed?

I know Rt 7 is a main route from Burlington to Middlebury to Rutland and Bennington, but too bad it somehow wasn't built to bypass some of the town centers as with RTs 89 and 91.