State project imagines new housing in 5 Vermont communities

VERGENNES — In the eyes of Amy Tomasso, a community planner for Vermont, the state’s smallest city is a perfect laboratory to test out a potential solution to its housing crisis.

Vergennes, which encompasses only 2 square miles and is home to about 2,560 residents, has recently reformed its zoning regulations to accommodate denser residential development.

“We have stated goals in our plan that we’d like to actually increase our population, because there are so many benefits to having more people,” said Shannon Haggett, chair of the city’s planning commission. “More houses means more people. More people means more money in terms of people going to our school system, and a larger tax base, and more commerce in our stores and shops.”

To that end, the city is one of five municipalities participating in a state-led project designed to identify nooks and crannies where residents and small developers could build new housing.

Tomasso, who is leading the project, ticked through the “different fronts” of the state’s “huge housing crisis,” including Vermont’s “really slow” rate of new housing construction, a housing stock that is second-oldest nationwide and a low rental vacancy rate.

“And so that means that both on the renter friend and homeowner front, there’s very little supply available, and it’s not affordable,” she said.

The project aims to fill already-developed downtown areas with more buildings that offer a diverse range of housing options. Situating the new housing in downtowns could make cities and towns more walkable, prevent sprawl and reduce the amount of local driving, Tomasso said.

In mid-October, state officials traveled to each of the selected municipalities — Arlington, Bellows Falls, Middlesex, Rutland City and Vergennes — with members of the Boston-based architecture firm Utile to move through the project’s first stage. Among their top goals: getting local buy-in.

In Vergennes on a recent Friday, a standing-room-only crowd that included members of the city’s planning commission, lawmakers, state officials from the Department of Housing and Community Development and members of the public gathered in a conference room at City Hall.

Utile representatives presented a suite of flexible building renderings, designed to evoke the style of Vermont’s existing architecture, which ranged from accessory dwelling units to apartment buildings with room for four families.

Then, they presented a map showing one part of the city, south of Main Street. Parcels, most privately owned, had been shaded different colors to indicate whether they could host new buildings.

Project leaders were clear: None of the property owners would be forced to build new structures on their land. Rather, the project’s success hinges on property owners electing to place new buildings on their properties.

After the presentation, the group took to the streets, walking through neighborhoods shown on the map. Residents who lived within the map’s borders occasionally poked their heads out of their homes, curious about the two dozen walkers gazing into their properties. Some wondered aloud whether they would be good spots for apartment buildings.

While some residents may not be interested in the project, Tomasso said, she believes that Vermonters have a greater appetite than ever to reimagine the function of their land. New dwellings could come in various sizes and shapes that range from the conversion of an upper barn floor to the construction of a new multifamily dwelling.

The project is meant to give potential developers tools and ideas. It could also spur and streamline additional zoning changes in each municipality.

“There’s been an acknowledgement that this is a solution that will work for Vermont communities, that it’s very bottom-up,” Tomasso said. “It’s local people deciding that they would like to maybe develop further on their own lots. It’s not a big corporation or government coming in and planting a large housing development in the middle of things.”

In Rutland City, Mayor Mike Doenges recently announced a goal to create 1,000 new housing units by 2030.

“It’s a demanding target,” said Andrew Strniste, the city’s planning and zoning administrator. “But we want it to be known that we are trying to encourage housing opportunities here in the city.”

Lawmakers funded the project, called Homes for All, through a 2022 appropriations bill, and it follows a decade of policy work aimed at making development easier, Tomasso said. For example, in 2016, a state initiative offered municipalities sample language so they could incrementally update their bylaws.

“Infill housing, denser development isn’t even possible in our often-outdated codes,” she said.

The HOME Act gave the project an even more robust foundation. Passed during the most recent session, the legislation enacted statewide zoning changes, such as allowing duplexes and creating more flexibility for accessory dwellings, according to Jake Hemmerick, a community planning and policy manager with the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

“The housing crisis has become so pervasive that a lot more people might want to become developers, or consider themselves a potential developer, than before,” Tomasso said.