Housing Task Force Weighs Next Steps for Airport Road Housing
The Housing Task Force is actively evaluating how best to move forward with housing development on the town-owned Airport Road property, balancing urgency with the responsibility to make a sound, legally defensible recommendation. Discussions have focused on the scale and mix of housing types, the role of workforce and affordable units, infrastructure costs, environmental considerations, and the town’s level of long-term control. The task force also raised important questions about flexibility within the original RFP process and the need for legal guidance to ensure any recommendation aligns with the Selectboard’s authority. While perspectives differ on the best development approach, there is shared recognition that delay carries real consequences for residents and workers struggling to remain in Manchester.
“Every month we don’t have something moving forward we have people who are up against the wall, being forced out of our community.”
Reposted from Manchester Journal
MANCHESTER — “We need housing.”
That was one point of common agreement voiced during a meeting of the town’s Housing Task Force held Monday, August 4. The task force is an advisory committee set up by the town’s select board and charged with making a recommendation to them on three responses received to a Request For Proposals (RFP) for how best to develop 60 acres of town-owned property between Richville Road and U.S. Route 7 and entered via Airport Road.
The task force did eliminate one of the three proposals during their meeting, one presented by the Williston, Vt.-based DEW Properties. Their proposal did not specify the number of housing units they proposed constructing, or how many of those might be classed as “affordable” or “workforce housing.” Instead, they requested an 18 month-long period to analyze the possibilities further and perform other needed due diligence. But while DEW has a lot of experience in building housing, that left too much uncertainty, several of the task force members said during the meeting.
“The thing that caused me the greatest concern was the 18 months of due diligence and for them to come back and say, ‘yeah, we’re not interested because this is not penciling out,’ and then we’re back to square one 18 months later,” said John Burnham, a member of the housing task force.
That left the two other proposals, one by Herrmann Construction of Manchester which calls for building 40 homes on 20 acres of the site, and the other by Integrated Manchester Housing Initiative, a partnership of three real estate developers with local ties, which anticipated developing the site with a mix of workforce and market rate housing that would include single family homes and apartments. The task force couldn’t find consensus on which of these two best fit the town’s housing needs - defined as 200 new units of housing built over the next six years - and decided to think some more about it and try to make a decision at their next meeting on Tuesday, August 12.
Whether the task force, as an advisory committee, had the legal right to make a separate recommendation, or alter the terms of the original Request For Proposal was another point of discussion. The members of the task force agreed that seeking legal counsel on that point made sense and hopefully they would know that answer by the time of the next meeting.
“I don’t want to make the wrong decision but I also don’t want to delay because we’ll always find something,” said Jonathan West, a select board member and the chair of the Housing Task Force. They needed legal clarification “on whether we as a task force can go outside the RFP and make a second type of recommendation.”
The task force finds itself eager to get the ball rolling on some kind of housing project on the site that works and addresses the need for affordable housing in the community but having to thread a needle on what precise development best does that and without any further unnecessary delay. Since the property sits far enough away from the town center, it will need to go through the Act 250 process, which historically has sometimes meant additional time to sort out, in addition to the other due diligence and economic analysis to allow both the town and the developer to arrive at a “win-win.”
“Every month we don’t have something moving forward we have people who are up against the wall, being forced out of our community,” said Jonathan West.
How much control would the town have going forward was another issue. So is the cost and need for infrastructure like water and sewer service, which could be expensive to bring in. To what extent should the town insist on renewable energy sources, such as requiring heat pumps for the homes and housing units? Could Herrmann Construction and Integrated Manchester Housing partner together and divide up the project in some way? Maybe selling part of the Richville Road property and using the proceeds to buy land somewhere else in town where construction could potentially start sooner was also a talking point.
These questions were significant enough that John Burnham, who is also the executive director of the Manchester Business Association, said that waiting another couple of weeks to think them through and get legal counsel was worth the wait since trying to build affordable housing in Manchester has been a challenge for several decades.
He stressed the need for more apartment units as an essential part of whatever gets built, since those starter homes would be attractive for new hires for local businesses who recruit workers from outside a comfortable commuting range.
“We need apartments where people coming to work here can get started, as the new workers find out if this is the right place for them,” he said. “I put a priority on apartments more than homes right now.”
Perhaps, said Tim Waker, another member of the task force, but apartments are more complex to build than single family homes.
The Housing Task Force will meet again on Tuesday, August 12, at 5:30 p.m. at the Kilburn Meeting Room at the Manchester Town Hall, hoping to land on a recommendation they can all agree on to make to the town’s select board about how best to proceed with developing the Airport Road site for housing.
https://www.manchesterjournal.com/local-news/housing-task-force-discusses-airport-road-decision/article_fd8635b4-c80f-43fd-9883-53721e24a330.html
As always, I can be reached directly at (802) 768-7900 or at west.j@manchester-vt.gov
