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U.S. NEWS A7
                                                                                                                                                                           Wednesday 8 March 2017

4 Vermont towns oppose development inspired by Mormon leader 

This photo shows a farm in Sharon, Vt. Residents of four small Vermont towns on Tuesday voted                                       before the vote.               care what your opinion is.”
overwhelmingly against a massive development by a Utah businessman that is based on the pa-                                         The nonbinding resolution      Hall didn’t immediately re-
pers of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, who was born in the area.                                                                      against it “will tell our lo-  turn a phone call or email
                                                                                                                                    cal, state officials and our   seeking comment. He has
                                                                                                            (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke)  neighbors and especially       said he expected locals
                                                                                                                                    David Hall how we, the vot-    to be opposed but hope
                                                                                                                                    ers of our town, feel about    they will grow more accus-
                                                                                                                                    this development,” he said.    tomed to the idea as they
                                                                                                                                    Resident Bob Dunkle, who       see other such develop-
                                                                                                                                    is also a member of The        ments built.
                                                                                                                                    Church of Jesus Christ of      Last year, he said the fam-
                                                                                                                                    Latter-day Saints, warned      ily foundation was also pur-
                                                                                                                                    that he’s seen sprawling       suing NewVistas develop-
                                                                                                                                    developments out West          ments in Nevada, China,
                                                                                                                                    and doesn’t want that to       India and Bhutan, but he
                                                                                                                                    happen in his town.            would not disclose the ex-
                                                                                                                                    “It’s more like a family com-  act locations. So far, the
                                                                                                                                    munity than anything else,     foundation has bought
                                                                                                                                    but you will lose that iden-   about 1,500 acres in central
                                                                                                                                    tity if you don’t do some-     Vermont and plans to buy
                                                                                                                                    thing quickly and take this    more. “No actions by any
                                                                                                                                    guy seriously,” he told the    group will dissuade us from
                                                                                                                                    crowd. “He doesn’t intend      continuing to purchasing
                                                                                                                                    to stop. And he hasn’t         land as it becomes avail-
                                                                                                                                    asked for anyone’s permis-     able and as we have bud-
                                                                                                                                    sion, and he really doesn’t    get,” he said in January.q

LISA RATHKE                  gardens, 48 basketball
Associated Press             courts and 48 Olympic-size
TUNBRIDGE, Vt. (AP) — Resi-  swimming pools.
dents of four small Vermont  He has said the community
towns on Tuesday voted       wouldn’t be based on reli-
overwhelmingly against a     gion and would be open to
massive development by       anyone.
a Utah businessman that      Many residents in the rural,
is based on the papers of    mountainous region with a
Mormon founder Joseph        total population of about
Smith, who was born in the   6,600 think such a large-
area.                        scale development would
The votes in Tunbridge,      change the character of
Royalton, Sharon and Straf-  their small communities, tax
ford took place on the an-   resources and limit access
nual Town Meeting day.       to recreational areas and
David Hall’s family founda-  mountain views.
tion NewVistas has been      “The NewVistas develop-
buying land near Smith’s     ment threatens what many
birthplace in Sharon, Ver-   Vermonters hold most
mont, to build — years in    dear, which is strong com-
the future — what the foun-  munities and local control
dation’s website says is an  over governance,” Mi-
economically, ecologically   chael Sacca, president of
and socially sustainable     the nonprofit Alliance for
development with housing     Vermont Communities, told
for 20,000 people, offices,  fellow Tunbridge residents
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