Book excerpt: The Vermont town at its best is an ideal vision for much of the country. It is a living artifact--appealing to our sense of history and of place. Long in the making and often at risk, the harmony of plan, structure and setting has rarely been matched. This work is devoted to exploring the reality of the towns--how they came to be. It illustrates their successes and those that fell by the road--sometimes literally. The small towns of exurbia are now in the embrace of super highways and development. How do we learn from the past--not to simply replicate it, but rather to secure guidelines to a successful future? Design control and legal considerations are given special chapters to serve as a guide for future actions relevant to every community.