A conversation about affordable housing
Amid a statewide housing crisis, Hinesburg is making strides to build more affordable homes
By Sarah Bokelberg
The Hinesburg Record intern
Hinesburg has been working to increase availability of local, affordable housing in the past few years. The town has recently added more homes with a second phase in the Kelley’s Field senior housing community, with plans for nearly 200 more units at the Haystack Crossing development, which received state Act 250 approval in 2024.
Discussion is also underway regarding the Windy Ridge development, a 90-unit project with 60 affordable units in partnership with Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity. The nonprofit Habitat is also proposing a six-unit development on Mechanicsville Road.
After nearly 20 years of work, the Hinesburg Affordable Housing Committee is making progress. Carl Bohlen, a Hinesburg resident since 1981, is a founding member and current chair of the committee. He recently spoke about how the town got to this point.
Q. What progress has Hinesburg made in terms of affordable housing recently?
A. A project was just completed at Kelley’s Field for 24 new homes for senior housing, and we provided $50,000 as a grant from the town’s revolving loan fund. And then we’ve been trying to work with Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity from the very start, and we finally have a project that’s in the works – Windy Ridge. Also, the town (allocated) $850,000 of a Community Development Block Grant for Riggs Meadow, which is part of Windy Ridge. And lastly, the development review board approved Haystack Crossing, which will have 20 affordable homes as part of it, 10 of them being senior housing.
Q. What progress are you hoping to see over the next year or two?
A. We’re hoping to have development review board approval and any other permits needed for Riggs Meadow. I’d love to see even more accessory dwelling units built in Hinesburg.
Finally, there are people working in Hinesburg that can’t find affordable housing. So we’re hoping we can work with the economic development committee and figure out some possible strategies to assist people in finding housing so they don’t have long commutes.
Q: What are the main obstacles you have faced while on the affordable housing committee?
A. One of the biggest ones is NIMBYism. It’s important to address neighbor concerns, but some just didn’t want certain types of people to move into Hinesburg. It’s also really hard to do any affordable housing without federal and state resources, and unfortunately, the federal government’s resources are probably going to be reduced.
Q. In what ways is there public support for what you are doing?
A. The assistant town manager and the planning and zoning staff have been very supportive of the housing issues and affordable housing. And the elective selectboard and planning commission are very supportive. There’s not a lot of direct feedback from the general public, but most of what we’ve gotten is positive about the work we’re trying to do.
Q. Where would you like to see more support from the community?
A. The key for affordable housing is, you have to have resources. We had a Community Development Block Grant that gave us some money, but the majority is pretty much depleted. We’d really like to go to the voters and see about putting an annual amount into a housing trust fund that could build it up, but we recognize the burden on the taxpayers. So we’re not going down that path.
Q. By leading this committee, are you hoping to inspire other people to help take a role in the community? How so?
A. Well, to be honest, I never thought about inspiring anyone. One of the great things about Hinesburg is there’s so many community volunteers in so many different ways. There’s the official town committees, there are fundraisers, there’s lots of volunteers who work in the schools and the community. Something that’s interesting is one of the newest members of our committee is someone who grew up with my son, moved back and wanted to participate in the community, and he’s now on the committee.
Q. Why did you want to lead this committee?
A. Well, I didn’t start out leading it, but I sort of initiated creating one. I worked for the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development, and I saw other communities that had a housing committee, especially Montpelier, and I thought, well, Hinesburg has a housing issue like so many other towns. So it led from my work at the Department of Housing to see if we could get a committee off the ground. There’s two of us on the committee who started on it back in 2006 so it’s been going a while, and our successes have been more frequent lately than in the beginning.
This story is made possible by Community News Service, a University of Vermont internship program, for the Hinesburg Record.