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Partly cloudy skies. Low 49F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.
Foster Goodrich spoke to the Pownal Select Board Thursday about his ideas for redeveloping the former Green Mountain Race Track site for outdoor recreation-related uses.
Foster Goodrich, center, talks with North Adams, Mass., officials in 2019 about a proposed upscale camping resort near Mt. Greylock. He now is proposing a redevelopment plan for the former Green Mountain Race Track in Pownal.
Foster Goodrich spoke to the Pownal Select Board Thursday about his ideas for redeveloping the former Green Mountain Race Track site for outdoor recreation-related uses.
Foster Goodrich, center, talks with North Adams, Mass., officials in 2019 about a proposed upscale camping resort near Mt. Greylock. He now is proposing a redevelopment plan for the former Green Mountain Race Track in Pownal.
POWNAL — Select Board members were intrigued Thursday but also raised some questions after hearing about a recreation resort idea involving the former Green Mountain Race Track property.
Foster Goodrich, of Brookman Road, spoke about his proposal for a park hosting recreational vehicles and cabins on the 144-acre site off Route 7 – putting the property at the cutting edge of an expanding network of mountain bike, ski and hiking trails in the region.
Other businesses, such as a brewer to take advantage of the well-documented water sources beneath the former track property along the Hoosic River, and retail or travel-related businesses are also possible, he said, in part to serve the RV park and visitor cabins.
Recreation-related development, such as the creation of new trails for year-round use, “is happening right now, all around us,” Goodrich said, but the town is not benefiting from money being spent elsewhere by visitors and area residents.
After consulting with planning officials, Goodrich said he believes a park with at least 60 to 80 camping sites could be permitted, possibly more.
Board members said they would have to research the proposal, and Chairman Michael Gardner suggested a meeting during which townspeople and others could ask questions.
Eventually, the board and Goodrich agreed to hold a public information session about the idea on July 21.
“I think we owe ourselves and the town to do our due diligence,” Gardner said, “but this is a unique situation that could play out for the town.”
“It does sound great,” said board member Robert Jarvis, but he wanted the board to thoroughly investigate the proposal.
“There are many details that need to be figured out; there is no easy path to do this,” Goodrich said, citing hurdles such as in acquiring the track site, which is owned by an investment group. “The path to accomplishing this is challenging, but I believe there is a path.”
That would involve working with the town, state and federal agencies, and organizations like the Vermont Land Trust, Goodrich said, adding that recreation-oriented projects continue to draw significant interest from sources of grant funding.
In addition, he suggested the town could consider forming a redevelopment authority to oversee a project focused on the track and work with private developers and other parties -- or work with an existing development entity, such as the Bennington County Industrial Corp.
An authority or similar entity could receive grants and government assistance not available to a private developer, he said, and that could be used to acquire the property, do remediation work and redevelop the site for new recreation uses.
He said the town could realize revenue by leasing parts of the site to a private RV park operator or other businesses.
“There are real revenue generating opportunities,” he told board members.
“It is exceedingly complex, but that [has been] my life," Goodrich said at one point.
His experience, he said, includes working with building contractors, visiting all 50 states, and working as a fishing guide in the West and in Alaska. He also has been involved in previous recreation-related development proposals.
Since growing up in Williamstown, Mass., and later graduating from Middlebury College, he has always been involved in outdoor sports and year-round recreation.
“My passion is the outdoors,” he said.
In the idea he is promoting, town taxpayers would not be called upon to fund the project, he said, but might be asked to assist with legal or other costs in setting up an authority. The proposal to repurpose the track site would be a multi-year effort, he said.
He added that an example of the effort he proposes would be the $54 million Putnam Block project in downtown Bennington, which has attracted millions in grants, tax credits and other funding through public-private partnerships and is overseen by a community-oriented group of individuals and local businesses and organizations.
Remediation work, such as environmental cleanup work and possibly removal of the fire-gutted grandstand building at the former race track might receive grant funding a private developer wouldn’t be eligible for -- as was the case with removal of industrial contaminants from soil under part of the Putnam Block site.
In 2019, Goodrich and a partner proposed a luxury camping development at the base of Mt. Greylock in North Adams, Mass. The project gained permits, despite significant opposition by several neighbors to the site, but was not completed.
Goodrich said the COVID-19 pandemic led to investment funding drying up and to a sale of the proposed campground site to another developer.
Another proposal for cabins and a recreation facility near biking trails in Lyndon has not been completed.
Goodrich said he now is involved with a partner in the Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville, which is also near the Kingdom Trails network of mountain bike trails in Lyndonville and East Burke in the Northeast Kingdom.
He said that, as an example, that extensive recreation region attracts some 140,000 visitors annually. The average drive there from major cities is about five hours, he added, but it would be a considerably shorter drive to reach Pownal.
Another reason for optimism, Goodrich said, is that Pownal is near the Berkshires and surrounding areas that draw thousands of visitors annually to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Mass., the Clark Art Institute and Williams College in Williamstown, and other attractions.
The border with Williamstown is less than a mile from the track site.
Hiking and mountain biking are only two of the activities a resort at the track site could take advantage of, Goodrich said. Others include rafting, which is increasingly popular but lacks good parking and launch or landing areas along the Hoosic, and fishing tours on the river, which are increasing.
The Hoosic passes through North Adams, Williamstown and Pownal before entering New York state and heading toward the Hudson River.
One proposal under consideration is to create a bike/pedestrian path linking Bennington with Williamstown and North Adams, Mass., and by extension with the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail, which extends to Adams, Mass., and south into Cheshire, Lanesbourgh and Pittsfield in the Berkshires.
The proposal in Vermont is to largely follow the former trolley line route, which once linked the Bennington area with the Berkshires, and pass near the race track site.
A footbridge across the river to access trails on the west side of the river might also be possible, Goodrich said, and could receive grant funding.
Pownal has been awarded a state grant for a planned footbridge near the town wastewater plant site in North Pownal to access hiking trails on the west side of the Hoosic on hundreds of acres the town owns along the Taconic Range. The town land hasn’t been easily accessible in recent years because a road leading up the ridge washed out.
“If we look at Pownal as a whole, its topography, the natural beauty, the resources that it has; it has everything that is necessary to check all of those boxes to draw people in,” Goodrich said.
What it lacks, he said, is a reason for people to visit Pownal and stay for outdoor recreation, the arts or other purposes over a few days or longer.
“I don’t presume to know whether the track owner will sell,” Goodrich told the board members, “but I would help you pursue that.”
There are many questions to be discussed, Gardner said of the idea, “but right now on the property nothing is happening.”
Jim Therrien writes for Vermont News and Media, including the Bennington Banner, Manchester Journal and Brattleboro Reformer. Email jtherrien@benningtonbanner.com
Jim Therrien reports for the three Vermont News and Media newspapers in Southern Vermont. He previously worked as a reporter and editor at the Berkshire Eagle, the Bennington Banner, the Springfield Republican, and the former North Adams Transcript.
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