It is clear that land use decisions made in one community can have impacts upon neighboring towns.  A city’s failure to provide housing might push people to live in rural towns and commute long distances.  A town’s desire to see commercial growth along a highway might result in strip development, draining a downtown economy.  Sediment loads entering a river from poor construction practices in an upstream town may affect water quality and stream behavior in all communities through which then river flows.

Vermont’s eleven regional planning commissions were created, in large part, to provide a forum to examine such concerns, and the framework and staff to address them.  The 2003 Central Vermont Regional Plan  articulates CVRPC’s vision for a region in which important land use decisions are made in a way that is mindful of their broader implications.  Accordingly, it provides member municipalities, regulators, and the general public with a number of goals, policies, and strategies designed to achieve a well-balanced, well integrated region.  

The Regional Plan also provides the framework for CVRPC’s participation in Act 250, Vermont’s development review process.  As a statutory party to the Act 250 process, the Regional Commission provides testimony on those projects determined to be regionally significant.

From time to time the Commission conducts more specialized regional studies.  The Central Vermont Natural Resource Inventory and the Central Vermont Recreation Report are examples of such works.