A Big Week for Hinesburg Development
DRB approves final plans for 126 units of new housing, including at least 54 that will be permanently 'affordable'
(Note: The Media Factory video has a “clickable agenda” that allows you to skip to the spots you are interested in. It also has a transcript.)
Record Staff Report
In a marathon three-hour session, the Hinesburg Development Review Board approved three final plat applications amounting to 130 units of housing, including 22 units that will be permanently ‘affordable.’
Hinesburg Center 2 (HC2) (west of the Kinney Drugs development and north of Creekside), the Riggs Meadow portion of the Windy Ridge project and Tractor Road now await the staff write-ups of “conditions of approval” for the DRB to formally approve. Those board votes will come in November and that will allow the projects to begin work, barring any legal challenges.
At the moment, it does not appear to be any obstacles as state permits have been obtained and no one expressed opposition to the projects at the Oct. 21 meeting.
Carl Bohlen, head of Hinesburg’s Affordable Housing Committee, spoke in favor of all the projects, noting the large amount of affordable housing the projects will offer.
The DRB approved a total of:
64 units in the HC2 project of which 14 units in the entire project will be permanently affordable (another 18 planned units need further review);
46 units in the Windy Ridge (Riggs Meadow phase on the east side of Route 116) of which 36 units will be permanently affordable (another 30 units of affordable units need further review of which eight will be built in partnership with Habitat for Humanity); and
16 units in the Tractor Road development off Mechanicsville Road of which four units will be permanently affordable. (There are two more phases planned that will also be required to have affordable units.)
Site work has begun at Haystack Crossing (north of Hinesburg Center 2) which will yield upwards of 176 units (a second phase will have to go through review) which includes 20 affordable units and 50 senior housing units, 10 of which will be perpetually affordable.
While his comments came during discussion of the HC2 project, Bohlen said “the housing is very, very important to this community overall and having more users for the water and wastewater is critical.”
Brett Grabowski, principal of Hinesburg Center Investments and developer of the project, put it more bluntly. Noting that on the 34-unit building on HC2 “the base fees (for municipal sewer and water) are $8,000 a quarter. … and usage fees are through the roof. So double that: $16,000 a quarter. Other buildings I own in Chittenden County (are) $3,000 a quarter.
“That’s because of a lack of users and you have fixed costs, and these are being passed onto basically the existing (water and) sewer users,” he added. “You guys need to improve your tax base. … If the town is not growing, it is dying.”
Water and sewer treatment has put Hinesburg – and current water and sewer users – in a problematic situation. The town has been forced to undertake a major upgrade and reconstruction of its wastewater and water treatment plants over the last several years, requiring a large bond issue to cover much of the costs.
While the state mandated the upgrade, the looming proposed developments in town forced the move to expand capacity. Current ratepayers have borne much of the cost. Another bond issue looms to bring an additional well to the water supply, but as Town Manager Todd Odit has explained, when the developments do come online, the initial fees and additional usage income will offset the costs and reduce the charges to users.
Another aspect of water – storm runoff – dominated discussion at all three projects given approval.
Several Creekside homeowners reminded the HC2 developer and the board of provisions in the plan to deal with storm runoff. With the Windy Ridge Riggs Meadows project, runoff is more complex as the project extends over hilly terrain.
The Windy Ridge project recently received approval for a $850,000 state block grant. The next phases will not only include more affordable housing but a 100-child day care center.
Bohlen again offered a thought that could apply to all of the developers about the modeling used to determine runoff in major storms: “Hopefully the modeling being done goes beyond the 100-year model because of climate change.”
It will now be up to Development Review Coordinator Mitchel Cypes to write conditions of approval on these applications and two other smaller applications in time for the Nov. 4 DRB meeting for final approval. He said that discussion may stretch to the Nov. 18 meeting as well.
“Is this big news?” Cypes said. “Yes, I believe it is.”