Haystack Housing Happenings
Work on Haystack Crossings Phase I has begun
By Rocky Martin
Hinesburg Affordable Housing Committee
If you’ve driven north on 116 over the past few months past Kinney Drugs toward Ballards (all right, Jiffy Mart), you may have noticed the big machines working on the west side and the large piles of dirt out toward the town rec fields. “What’s going on out there?” maybe you’ve asked yourself.
This is the first of two or more phases of the Haystack Crossing project. Over time, Haystack Homes LLC led by Ben Avery, GW Tatro Construction of Jeffersonville, Vermont, and a silent partner will develop 76 acres on the west side of Route 116 into about 270 new housing units of different types and around 50,000 square feet of commercial/light industrial space in multiple buildings.
Phase 1 of this project includes 40 single-family homes, 16 traditional townhouse units, and a 50-unit congregate senior apartment building with 10,000 square feet of support space. This phase will mostly be located near the town recreation fields with access provided by Haystack Crossing on the road now serving as the entrance to UVM Medical Center on Shelburne Falls Road. This first phase includes 20 perpetually affordable housing units.
The project started the permit process in 2014, but failed to receive local permits. After an appeal to the Vermont Environmental Court, town permits were ultimately received in 2022 and an Act 250 permit was received in 2024. Needing additional water capacity for a development of this size, the developers drilled a well on the property which was transferred to the town. The recently passed bond vote will provide financing needed to get power to the well, add treatment capacity and connect the well to the town system at the existing water treatment building off Shelburne Falls Road.
Initially the project proposed a roadway over a bridge across Patrick Brook to connect to the Hinesburg Center project behind Kinney. Hinesburg Center did not receive a permit for this bridge, however, so you won’t be able to drive from seeing a doctor at UVM Medical Center to Kinney’s to pick up your prescription without navigating Route 116. A pedestrian bridge over Patrick Brook is still in the works. A connection to Route 116 opposite Riggs Road (NRG complex) will be built in a future phase.
Construction began this summer with necessary infrastructure. Currently water and wastewater lines are installed as are stormwater piping and a treatment pond. Further work in late fall/early winter should include power and other underground utilities being installed. The developers hope to get the road subbase (big rocks) and base (smaller rocks) in place soon to allow concrete and building material trucks access.
Coincidentally, these new roads will provide access to the town recreational fields parking lot; the existing easement and temporary access road will go away. Avery said he hopes to get at least one house underway over the winter and the first coat of road paving next spring. He said he anticipates working collaboratively with Champlain Housing Trust and Evernorth on their Riggs Meadow project on the east side of 116 to allow that project to connect a wastewater line into the lines they recently installed.
This is undoubtedly the largest development project Hinesburg has ever seen. It will help address the serious housing shortage we are currently experiencing and also provide for much needed affordable and senior housing.
Additional details of this project can be found on the DRB “Large Project Information” Hinesburg town website.
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