Mystery developers with big plans are nothing new to the Upper Valley. Over the years, a number have come from distant places with grand visions; most have gone without bringing them to fruition.

 Despite that history, when such projects surface, they understandably tend to evoke curiosity and, perhaps more frequently, anxiety. Such is the case with plans by a wealthy Utah-based developer to build, over many years, a self-contained, sustainable, “intentional” community of up to 20,000 residents on 5,000 acres near the Joseph Smith Memorial. Smith, the Mormon prophet, and his followers imagined such a community back in the 1830s and that vision is the inspiration for the plans by developer David R. Hall and his NewVista Foundation (although Hall says there will be no religious requirement for living there).

That Hall is something of a visionary himself can be inferred from his acknowledgement that realizing his dream will require nothing less than a new model of capitalism, as staff writer Rob Wolfe has reported — one in which individuals contribute their intellectual and financial assets to the community for its use. Why Vermont? Besides the geographical tie to Smith, Hall thinks that if such a concept could be pioneered successfully anywhere, it would be in the Green Mountain State, which values sustainability, community and concern for the environment.

Realizing such a vision would naturally require very deep pockets, and Hall reports that the NewVista Foundation has about $100 million at its disposal. Indeed, before the project came to light recently, NewVista had already spent about $3.5 million quietly purchasing some 900 acres in Sharon, Royalton, Tunbridge and Strafford.

Plans on such a vast scale have caused a certain amount of consternation in the four White River Valley communities, but how much say they would have in the process is unclear. Act 250, Vermont’s land use law, seems well suited to evaluate and regulate such an enormous regional project. On the other hand, of the four towns, only Strafford currently has zoning regulations outside of flood plain rules. That could change, since there is little as effective in concentrating a community’s mind on zoning as the prospect of a massive development within its borders. The Two Rivers-Ottaquechee Regional Commission will convene a meeting of officials from the four towns later this month to discuss options.

Although some residents interviewed by Wolfe seemed bewildered and worried, not everyone was alarmed. For example, Royalton Selectwoman Joan Goldstein, who is also commissioner of the state’s Department of Economic Development, noted that Hall’s vision aligns nicely with Vermont’s values. “When you look at it that way, it’s like, what’s to complain about?” she asked.

Goldstein has a point, but she is a little too sanguine. The four towns together have about 6,500 residents. Plunking down another 20,000 people in their midst, even over a long period, would unquestionably alter their lives in ways that are difficult to imagine. That’s true whether or not NewVista’s community were self-contained and self-sustaining, with residents living, working, shopping and recreating among themselves. To our mind, there’s also something a little unsettling about the idea of large numbers of like-minded people moving together to a new state to live in pursuit of a shared vision. Some might call it Utopian; others dystopian.