Haystack Crossing to Break Ground in May
By Lynn Monty
Phase One of Hinesburg’s Haystack Crossing will break ground in May, almost 12 years after it was first proposed. This mixed-use development on the west side of Route 116 across from NRG plans up to 269 new housing units when all phases are complete.
“Despite 10 years of permitting, the project is exactly as envisioned,” principal developer Benjamin Avery told The Hinesburg Record.
Phase One promises 40 single-family homes, 50 senior living units, 16 townhouses, and 20 units of affordable housing. Also planned is 27,000 square feet of non-residential building space for commercial and light industrial buildings and green space.
Avery has been with the project from the start. BlackRock was a general partner in the project, but its shares were purchased by Greg and Dawn Tatro, who have also been involved from the outset.
“The partners at BlackRock chose to take separate paths back in 2022,” Avery said. “The exit had nothing to do with Haystack; BlackRock has exited all projects that they were involved in that are not already under construction.”
He said the Bissonette family, owners of the property, “were a silent landowner meaning they did not participate in the planning. Haystack Homes LLC closed on the land late last year.”
The Tatros, Avery, and a silent partner own Haystack Homes LLC; Joseph Bissonnette is still listed on incorporation papers. Avery declined to disclose financial details. “This project has always been led by the same group of people,” he said. “We look forward to bringing a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood to the heart of Hinesburg.”
The Act 250 process held no procedural challenges for the project, Avery said. There was some additional time needed for archaeology work. No artifacts were found, the issue was UVM taking time to complete their work over a period of two years due to seasonal digging requirements. Avery said the bulk of the hold up (eight years) was due to the Town permitting process.
Hinesburg Development Review Coordinator Mitchel Cypes said the removal of the Patrick Brook crossing and state requirements delayed the project.
“From the Town perspective the development can mostly proceed,” he said. “The multi-family, mixed use and non-residential developments still require conditional use and/or site plan reviews with the Development Review Board.”
Why did the town permitting process take eight years?
According to a Findings of Fact on a 2020 DRB approval, the application was delayed a year, from 2014 to 2015, for several compliance and design issues, Cypes said. The application was then delayed, from early 2015 to late 2019, due to the lack of potable water in the village, which delayed several projects.
“The DRB provided extensions to the sketch plan approval, until potable water became available,” Cypes said. “There were some additional design compliance issues, especially stormwater, that required about two years of additional review prior to the applicant obtaining a final plat approval from the DRB.”
Alex Weinhagen, now serving as a board member on the State Land Use Review Board, recently stepped down as Director of Planning and Zoning. He said the conceptual plan for the project (sketch plan review) was denied twice by the DRB at the front end. “The developer appealed the second sketch plan denial, and the court ruled in the developer’s favor and allowed the project to proceed to the next step of the Town-level review,” he said. “Those initial denials and the appeal held the project up in the first two years (from 2014 to 2016).”
After that, there was a pause because of limited municipal water capacity. All development in Hinesburg was essentially paused for a couple of years because of water system issues and lack of capacity, Weinhagen said.
The Town and the Haystack developer worked collaboratively to address this by drilling, testing, and permitting a new well on the project property. Once the capacity of the new well was proven, the developer donated the well and necessary easements to the Town, in return for a guarantee of some water capacity, and assurances that the Town would bring the well online.
“This process took a few years (from 2016 to 2019),” Weinhagen said. “That new well is permitted with the State and ready to be connected to the Town’s water system, once the Haystack project breaks ground – hopefully this spring.”
After 2019, the project’s DRB review was fairly straightforward but did take a bit longer than usual due to the Covid pandemic in 2020, Weinhagen said.
“The Town DRB review moved to remote meetings, but the nature of those meetings meant less could be covered at each one, and the preliminary plat application review took more time in 2020 as a result,” he said. “After the preliminary plat approval in September 2020, any additional delays were a function of the developer’s process and decision making. As you can see from the timeline on the website – the final plat application was initially received in March 2022 and the final approval was issued in November 2022.”