Community Development

The Vermont Community Development Program (VCDP) assists communities on a competitive basis by providing financial and technical assistance to identify and address local needs in the areas of:

Your community has a great re-development opportunity, but the project needs funding. Sound familiar? Luckily a number of federal, state and local resources are available to help. Each program below serves a particular area of interest and has specific eligibility requirements. Program staff can help you find the resources needed to meet your community development goals.

Village center designation supports the revitalization efforts of small and medium-sized historic centers. The designation brings financial incentives, training and technical assistance needed to attract new business and vitality to Vermont’s smaller communities.

Since the 1970s the state has promoted development policies and programs that maintain and enhance Vermont’s historic development pattern of compact centers surrounded by a rural landscape.

For municipalities that lack a historic downtown, Vermont statute 24 V.S.A § 2793b provides the option of designating a New Town Center. Designation requirements focus on planning, capital expenditures, and regulatory tools that promote a pedestrian-oriented development pattern similar to our historic downtowns. 

Growth centers aim to align public infrastructure and private building investments with a local framework of policies and regulations to ensure that 20 years of future development will enhance the vitality of the designated commercial center, while protecting farm and forest land outside the growth center.

The Vermont Downtown Development Board is chartered by 24 V.S.A. § 2792 and it administers the Downtown Development Act. The Board supports the preservation and enhancement of Vermont’s distinctive landscape of compact centers surrounded by rural land with policies and programs including the state designation programs, rehabilitation tax credits and grants. The members of the Downtown Board represent a variety of state agencies, organizations and communities.

The Department of Housing and Community Development manages the state designation programs – Downtowns, Village Centers, New Town Centers, Growth Centers and Neighborhood Development Areas.

Eight historic downtowns in Vermont, turned massive flooding into opportunities to improve their physical design, hone their marketing messages, and strengthen partnerships to achieve greater economic resilience and build back stronger than before the flood.