The Greensboro Town Hall, home to the Town Clerk, Town Treasurer, Assessor, Zoning Administrator, FEMA Representative, Giving Closet, Hardwick Gazette and Collier Room, where various committees meet. It is being considered for village center housing that the select board is working with nonprofit housing developer and manager RuralEdge to create a plan that will be put to a town vote before any project can proceed.
GREENSBORO – The bulk of the Greensboro Planning Commission meeting at the Greensboro Free Library, August 6, was taken up with a discussion about whether to reestablish a housing subcommittee late in the meeting.
The commission met without several regular members: Kelli Story and ex-officio Zoning Administrator Brett Stanciu. A handful of members of the public, including select board Chair, Eric Hansen. attended too.
Regular members Kent Hansen, Christine Armstrong, Alexis Mattos and Janet Patterson approved minutes of the July 2 and July 8 meetings with several alterations, then listened to a public comment from Matt Day inquiring about sections in the proposed Shoreline Protection District that might affect a proposal he’s working on to expand his 700-square-foot home.
Kent Hansen said the commission is awaiting a select board decision about how to proceed with the proposed amendments and set up a public hearing. They expect a decision to be made at the next meeting and recommended Matt write a letter to the select board with his questions and attend the public hearing. The subject is on the August 24 select board meeting agenda to be taken up at 8:20 p.m.
Kent Hansen began discussion of reestablishing a housing subcommittee by summarizing the history of its last iteration that has resulted in the RuralEdge proposal for the town hall and plans for a Habitat for Humanity project in Greensboro Bend. It was created in response to one of the goals of the town plan to look at ways to expand housing options in town.
The previous committee, now disbanded, included members Kent Hansen as chair, Ellen Celnick, MacNeil, Bobbie Nesbit, Robbie Hurst and Denise Hill. None of the original members have time to continue on the subcommittee, said Kent Hansen.
Recounting its history, he said, in 2019 a professional housing assessment was completed which supported the idea that housing for working families was needed. They investigated a number of nonprofit agencies and discovered most housing agencies want housing to be placed in village centers.
The Housing Subcommittee introduced Patrick Shattuck of RuralEdge to the select board, also connecting them with Habitat for Humanity.
A significant hurdle is access to land. Thirty percent of Greensboro’s land is protected by trusts or is otherwise protected land, making the siting of housing projects more difficult. Clay soils and existing geological features add to the complications.
A regional housing group, the Community Housing Forum with members from Albany, Craftsbury, Glover and Greensboro is investigating an idea whereby a land trust would purchase properties as they come on the market then work to have them developed for dedicated housing.
Kent Hansen noted that some people think Greensboro’s zoning is a hurdle to housing, but Craftsbury, which has no zoning, is experiencing the same difficulties developing housing options.
Janet Long commented, as a member of the public, that it would have been useful for townspeople to have heard more about steps that the subcommittee took along the way and Kent Hansen agreed they could have been better with minutes and reporting on the commission’s progress. He added that a public meeting, inviting the public to restart the Housing Subcommittee efforts may be a good idea.
The initial investigatory legwork can be shared and some land trust covenants have been changed so building affordable housing is possible, Kent Hansen said.
Janet Patterson noted the lack of communication as a fatal flaw in the current RuralEdge effort, adding that taking a regional view with abutting towns may be more productive.
Armstrong summarized past work of the Housing Subcommittee being used to inform future work: that Northeastern Vermont Development Association (NVDA) has regional housing goals which could be reviewed; that the new subcommittee could be served by folks who have expertise in housing and finance, and perhaps some who have expressed opinions about the RuralEdge project and housing in general; that there are a variety of ways that other communities in the state and country have addressed this problem and we ought to look at them.
Kent Hansen suggested no private developer will likely build here because there is not enough scale to make it attractive.
Terry O’Connor, speaking as a member of the public, said a problem in Greensboro is not utilizing existing homes and Patterson added Greensboro does not seem to have thought this through as he town’s bylaws are not written to accommodate this sort of development.
There was further dIscussion about Act 250 and the RuralEdge project not being exempt from that process; about mIxed use development not being addressed in Greensboro’s bylaws, but needing to be considered with the RuralEdge project because the town offices would remain there with proposed apartments above.
Whether the RuralEdge project fits under Greensboro’s existing bylaws came up and Kent Hansen said he has been told that the approach is up to the zoning administrator and that it has been proposed two applications be put before the administrator, one for town offices and one for the apartments.
Kent Handen said he will prepare a summarized history of the housing subcommittee work for a public informational meeting on August 19 that will begin with a potluck dessert gathering at 5:30 p.m., followed by the public informational session from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. where questions can be answered and to which the RuralEdge project’s developers will be invited.
Other business discussed before the housing issue included the community survey sent out with tax bills and is now online with an October 1, 2024 deadline for responses.
A member of the public asked what the survey was for and Kent Hansen summarized the town planning cycle, starting with the survey and resulting in a vote at the 2025 town meeting in March.
Kent Hansen summarized the FEMA process regarding updates to the flood maps and the subsequent bylaw update required. The new FEMA flood maps will provide contour data at a scale of 12 inches vs the former maps at 20 feet. Towns that participate in the flood insurance program must comply with the new maps in their bylaws. A new stand-alone bylaw template has been created by NVDA. It could be applied to Greensboro as is, or the Town could modify it, he said.
Kristen Leahy, the Hardwick zoning administrator and a Greensboro resident, offered to assist in the discussion by coming to a meeting. She’s told him that Hardwick has recently completed this process.
The agenda item noting a new town plan resulted in Kent Hansen inviting commission members to review the format and table of contents of the last town plan as preparation for the work, suggesting a town plan with appendices may be less voluminous.
This article has been corrected to identify the second two comments originally attributed to Janet Long as as having been made by Janet Patterson as recalled by Long as draft minutes ambiguousoly refer only to ‘Janet’ as having made those second two comments.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
