Affordable Housing Projects Top Planning
Commission Agenda
by Edd Merritt
1/14/10, Page 4

At its December 17 and January 7 meetings, the Charlotte Planning Commission heard requests for construction of affordable housing in three corners of town. Two proposals involved Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity, the Chittenden County affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, and the third incorporated the Champlain Housing Trust as its sales body.
Habitat presented preliminary plat plans for three houses in the southwest corner of the town-owned Burns property. The property lies along Greenbush Road south of its intersection with Ferry Road and extends east to Route 7. The houses would be clustered, leaving open a large lot available for septic disposal. Two of the lots would share a driveway.
David Marshall, representing Habitat said that the building envelopes were designed to “mimic Charlotte’s pattern of historic development,” each facing a different direction to reduce the impression of identical row houses common in many affordable projects.
Developers of all three projects emphasized recent strides made toward energy conservation in their dwellings.
Habitat has been building five-star energy rated houses for more than ten years. However, the Burns/Charlotte project will produce the first houses in New England to meet new passive solar standards set by the Passive House Institute, according to Habitat’s Tamira Martel. In addition to the Town of Charlotte, which provided advisement through its task force, Habitat’s partners in the project will include Efficiency Vermont and the Champlain Valley Weatherization Service.
At the Commission’s January 7 meeting Steven Davis and Elizabeth Leonard continued their sketch-plan review for four affordably priced single-family dwellings on the Charlotte/Hinesburg Road east of Baptist Corners. They stressed the efficiency of compact solar panels designed into the structures that will reduce the cost of utilities for buyers and also help provide a five-star energy rating. Davis said that high-value windows and efficient heating systems would decrease utility costs even further.
This project is slated to receive $30,000 from Charlotte’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund for three of the houses at the maximum $10,000 per unit. After lengthy debate about the relative value of owner-occupied compared to rental affordable housing, the Selectboard approved the grant on a vote of three to two at their December 21 meeting, with Ed Stone and Frank Thornton dissenting.
The second multi-unit development to be constructed by Green Mountain Habitat would rest off Spear Street north of Carpenter Road. Allan Jordan, longtime member of Charlotte’s Affordable Housing Committee, has proposed sub-dividing an 11-acre parcel currently belonging to the Gecewicz family and the former site of Trudy’s Greenhouses. He has gained Habitat’s interest in purchasing part of the property on which it would build four affordable houses.
The homes would be on level land where the greenhouses stood. The Gecewicz house with its second structure would remain on a separate parcel. Because much of the area outside the building lots is flood plain, the commission wanted to ensure the boundaries had sufficient set-backs. Defending the plan, Jordan deferred to generations of farmers who worked and lived on the property saying, “There have been structures around for years. These farmers aren’t dummies. They don’t build where it’s going to flood.” Water engineer Tony Stout, who has been working with Habitat in designing the placement of houses, said that it is, indeed, a compact project.
A $5,000 grant from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund has been approved for the feasibility study for this project
Questions were also raised about its proximity to a firing range, emphasizing noise from the guns and danger from stray shots. Jordan felt that the issue had been well covered over a number of years and that litigation had settled the question.
The Planning Commission will review plans and proposals and respond to applicants.