Hartford — A new set of rules that will guide development throughout much of the Upper Valley is already raising concerns in Hartford, where town planners are petitioning the Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission to slow down the process and allow for more public input.

Two Rivers officials say they’re already actively soliciting public input from Hartford and other affected towns, and that the process ultimately will be driven by the member towns.

At issue are long-standing disagreements between the regional commission, Hartford and other communities about the types of development that should be allowed near interchanges along Interstates 89 and 91, among other areas. And it follows on a recent Vermont Supreme Court decision in favor of Two Rivers that killed a major development Hartford officials had supported.

For many, the dispute boils down to a question of local control, with Hartford maintaining that its unique five-village setup means that what works in other areas won’t necessarily work in Hartford.

“The notion that you can have a set of cookie-cutter rules for every town in Vermont is silly. That’s the problem,” said Bruce Riddle, chairman of the Hartford Planning Commission. “What works in one place may not work for another, and there needs to be careful thought.”

Two Rivers is planning to propose revisions to the 34-page land use chapter of the 2015 Regional Plan; the chapter governs what type of development is permissible in interstate interchanges, regional and designated growth centers and downtowns in its 30 member towns. It also could redraw the boundaries that define those areas.

Riddle and Hartford Town Planner Lori Hirshfield have asked the commission to delay the current process, which includes plans to bring the proposed revisions to a vote by June.

“We ask that thought be given to adding another year,” Riddle said. “Trying to do it by June is a big rush and we feel there are a lot of issues that need to be discussed.”

Two Rivers is expected to respond to the request in some way during or after a Dec. 9 meeting of its executive committee.

Peter Gregory, executive director of the Woodstock-based Two Rivers commission, said he and other staff members have already met with about a dozen towns, including Hartford, to gather input before drafting any proposed changes.

“We are taking public input and dialogue very seriously,” he said.

The town and the commission have sparred in the past over whether a company owned by Pomfret travel executive Scott Milne could build the mixed-use Quechee Highlands project on a 168-acre parcel in the Quechee interchange near the Interstate 89 exit and Route 4.

Hartford initially backed Milne’s project, which conformed to its master plan, but was eventually forced to alter its master plan to align with the regional plan, which does not allow for commercial retail sites to be located in interstate interchanges.

The 10-year battle raised questions about whether commercial retail operations should be confined to Hartford’s downtowns, which are decentralized, or should be allowed at the interchange.

The Vermont Supreme Court ruled in favor of Two Rivers in October, effectively killing the project because Act 250, which guides large-scale developments in the state, requires projects to conform to the controlling regional plan.

“We did not want to bring up and rehash the Quechee Highlands case, but we want to have a broader discussion about what ought to go into the interchanges,” Riddle said. “Not just ours. All of them.”

After Two Rivers staff members draft proposed revisions, which is expected to happen in January, there will be a series of public hearings in March and April, after which the drafts can be modified. The final plan will be voted upon by the Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission membership during its annual June meeting.

“We will be proposing changes in many communities and so far, we have embraced all local input on land use changes and those communities are looking forward to getting these changes formalized by the TRORC Board adoption action,” Gregory said.

But during a recent meeting of the Hartford Planning Commission, Hirshfield told Two Rivers staffer Chris Sargent that by the time the plan is drafted, it might be too late for the public to comment.

“Lori Hirshfield responded that once the document goes to public hearing, there is not much interest on the part of the TRORC Board to make changes,” according to meeting minutes.

Riddle said the regional plan needs to be more carefully thought through, because the nature of commerce and development are changing so quickly.

“The world is changing. We think that some of the assumptions underlying development in Vermont for the last decade need to be carefully re-examined,” Riddle said. “The big obvious example is, and you can see statistics about this on the web, how many of us do our shopping now on the internet. That changes the viability of retail in downtowns.”

The revisions to the land use chapter of the regional plan are part of an ongoing series of scheduled revisions to the plan as a whole. A draft revision of the 21-page energy chapter has been circulated. It has taken longer than expected to formalize, in part because state rules related to alternative energy siting were just released on Nov. 1.

Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.

Correction

State rules in Vermont related to alternative energy siting were released on Nov. 1. An earlier version of this story gave an outdated status for the state rules.