Not far from Lake Champlain, the rural town of Starksboro in Vermont has enlisted the aid of college students to help determine what's really important to its residents as the specter of change from development looms on the horizon.
Spread out and vulnerable to the kind of low-density sprawl associated with small subdivisions and mobile home parks, some leaders in Starksboro hope it can avoid the kind of "slapdash development common in other states," according to a New York Times report by Abby Goodnough
With the help of a local foundation and a land trust, town leaders and Middlebury College officials hope the effort will become a model for other communities across the nation.
The entire article with photos can be viewed on the Times Web site: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/us/04middlebury.html
