Nick Zaiac
@zaiac.bsky.social
Regional Planner in VT after years of running the Norman Rockwell town. YIMBY and former DC transportation wonk. Personal account.
🎉 Big win in Michigan! 🎉 Single-stair buildings up to 4 stories are now law! Lower building costs, more home choices that Michiganders can afford. HUGE congrats to @abundanthousingmi.bsky.social for their hard work to help make this happen. 🙌
Whitmer signs state budget, education funding and housing bills into law • Michigan Advance
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed her eighth and final education budget into law Tuesday at an event in Southfield, celebrating wins in continuing to fund free school meals, free pre-K, free community coll...
michiganadvance.com
Of all the policy writing I’ve done, today’s study on emergency medical services is up with writing about the Flint water crisis as most jarring. Writing that response times could rose until the lack of ambulance service is so intolerable people take a class and start their own service is… 😬
Hate that I felt the need to warn my intern, an aspiring Boston-area planner, about the frequency of traffic violence deaths among transportation planners earlier this week.
David Zipper@davidzipper.bsky.social · 4w agoThis morning a driver struck and killed Louisa Gag, a biking advocate and transportation planner. Gag had coauthored a Vision Zero Action plan: visionzeronetwork.org/wp-content/u...
I may be extraordinarily biased but downtown Bennington couldn’t be in better hands. www.benningtonbanner.com/local-news/b...
Better Bennington Corporation names new executive director
BENNINGTON — An Arlington woman with a range of work experience in education and human service positions has been named the new executive director of the Better Bennington Corporation.
benningtonbanner.com
My my wife’s grandmother was one of the leaders of the effort to build this school after the previous one burned down. Turns out the guy was right, but early. The tax base was not enough to support desired school investments long term, but it will have taken about 90 years to prove it.
Jane@localnotail.bsky.social · 2mo agoNorman Rockwell's Freedom of Speech depicts a 1942 Arlington town meeting where the lone dissenter to the town's announced plans to build a new school is given a chance to speak Jim Edgerton agreed but was concerned about the tax burden of the proposal as his family farm had been ravaged by disease
Idaho 🤝 Vermont Identity built around mountains and specific agricultural product
Infrastructure nerd level: Marveling at the Boise DPW’s use of craggy, igneous stabilization stone in bridge projects, which should improve erosion control while lowering crushing and trucking costs. This rock product is entirely unavailable back east.
Unexpectedly pulling together a paper on regionalization of EMS services. Certainly a service that works best when county governments are involved, so the best option seems to be channel the Bloomington School economists and pray the solution is viable.
Mixed reaction on the scoping study but… We’re finally building the sidewalk I’ve been working on for 6 years. The children of Arlington will be able to safely walk from school to the park after 70 years.
Nick Zaiac@zaiac.bsky.social · 2mo agoBike/ped double tonight: 6 pm to seek approval for scoping a new bike path in one town, then 7 pm 10 miles north to award a new sidewalk, in person.
Bike/ped double tonight: 6 pm to seek approval for scoping a new bike path in one town, then 7 pm 10 miles north to award a new sidewalk, in person.
E24-24, my proposal to raise the IBC’s single-stair apartment building height limit from three stories to four, has passed the final membership vote, and will now officially make it into the 2027 IBC 🎉
Local land use reform long gaming my town of 2500. 2022-23: As town admin, got grant to modernize zoning bylaw 2026-27: As regional planner, got grant to personally rewrite town plan as contractor, improve land use element. 2028-29: Volunteer technical assistance to further add housing capacity.
I'm serving as a guest editor of a Cityscape Symposium on pro-housing reforms with Nathan Bossie and Leah Lozier of HUD. We're interested in studies that examine the effectiveness of policy changes in: ✅ zoning ✅ permit processes ✅ building codes ✅ impact fees ✅ housing finance
Campaign season: back with the local Dems to support the Thomas West campaign
Campaign season. Excited to be in Essex Junction to support the Ashley Bartley senate campaign
New training from me: Tools for implementing local plans Slides: www.bcrcvt.org/uploads/1/1/... Video bcrcvermont.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/compan...
bcrcvt.org
Analysis by Aaron Shroyer and coauthors finds that USPS land could accommodate 237,000 residential units through mixed-use post offices. Many people are saying this is some of the best-positioned federal land for reducing housing undersupply @zaiac.bsky.social @mnolangray.bsky.social
Delivering value: Building housing on Postal Service property | Brookings
This report proposes a strategy to address both of these challenges: using the Postal Service’s real estate portfolio to build housing and generate new ongoing revenues.
brookings.edu
Legs more sore from the next morning from 20 minutes on a trampoline than 90 minutes of climbing on the bike.
Excellent venue for talking about planning in an adaptive reused church/concert space
Last half hour of bidding for the sidewalk I’ve been working on for *checks watch* 6 years.
Happy to join the VT Walk Bike Summit to talk about conceptual bike/ped planning today
About to submit for review my regional plan housing element, codifying regional support for single stair/build code reform, which would be a first in VT planning.
Come join my team! We're hiring an Analyst to join AV's housing team. This is a great opportunity for early-career folks interested in the pro-housing ecosystem to support philanthropic investments, advocacy, and policy engagement. Details below: www.arnoldventures.org/careers/infr...
Arnold Ventures | Infrastructure Analyst, Housing
Explore careers at Arnold Ventures and join teams working toward lasting, measurable change.
arnoldventures.org
Sidewalk project in my town I’ve worked on for 6 years is finally going to bid. Time to pray to the infrastructure gods that someone wants to build it on budget
Was pleased to attend the VT Capital Planning Forum in Burlington today. [Obligatory lake Champlain cremee.]
Had to tell my friend he can’t buy some land from his neighbor to build a garage because of lot size minimums. 😢
Taught future loggers how to capital plan this morning. While they may not teach these skills in normal high school, the tech centers, at their best, absolutely are
