Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger has repeatedly said the city should grow by building “in-fill” housing near its downtown. But the mayor is learning that won’t necessarily be easy, with a project by his own development company providing a case study.... Read more

“Two-Buck Chuck” has become “Three-Buck Chuck” in the two years since Trader Joe’s first approached South Burlington about building a store on Dorset Street. The city’s development review board has granted the company preliminary approval to move forward with construction, and the proposal came before the city council last week.... Read more

Unlike the big-box store Walmart, which has triggered titanic development battles in Vermont, small-box discount retailers such as Dollar General have proliferated throughout the state with little notice.

Until now.

Residents of Chester, the very model of a quaint Vermont village, have been fighting a local Dollar General franchise for more than a year. Some Ferrisburgh and South Hero residents are mobilizing to block construction of similar projects.... Read more

Second Amendment activists have shot down gun-control legislation in Montpelier and are drawing a bead on Sen. Patrick Leahy’s anti-weapons-trafficking proposal and other measures in Washington.... Read more

The concert hall in Middlebury College’s Mahaney Center for the Arts proved an incongruous setting for a discussion last week on the state of the architecture profession in Vermont. Speaking in a space with a soaring wood-and-steel ceiling and lighting fixtures that resemble hang gliders, a panel of architects and academics lamented the lack of support in the Green Mountain State for buildings that, in moderator Aron Temkin’s words, exemplify “the architecture of our own era.”... Read more