In December 2022, a small group of interested townspeople came together to discuss the idea of a recreational area for our community. Within a few meetings, we’d decided on the name of CORA.

A two-acre parcel of town land bordering the Bingham Memorial School was identified as the ideal location for CORA.

The CORA Committee worked closely with the Cornwall Select Board and the Cornwall Planning Commission to submit and receive approval of the Cornwall Town Plan from the Addison County Regional Planning Commission. This allowed Cornwall to apply for and receive Village Center Designation (VCD), which supports local revitalization efforts across the state by providing technical assistance and state funding to help designated municipalities build strong communities. In addition, the Cornwall Select Board has approved allocating some of the town’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for CORA.

In late January 2023, Cornwall was selected as a Technical Assistance (TA) community under the Vermont Healthy Communities - Health Equity and Community Design pilot. Through the TA, the CORA Committee received free advice from community planning experts located across the country on everything from project visioning to a community health equity assessment of our town to developing a conceptual design for CORA to communications and outreach. Assistance has also been provided by the Addison County Regional Planning Commission and the Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI), a program of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board.