PUTNEY-After years of planning and navigating legal challenges, co-developers Windham-Windsor Housing Trust (WWHT) and Burlington-based Evernorth celebrated the groundbreaking of 25 mixed-income, energy-efficient apartments on Alice Holway Drive on May 5.
The 25 new apartments will help address the housing shortage in Putney, which is estimated to need 80 new rental and owner-occupied homes within the next five years, according to the town's recently released Housing Needs Assessment and Action Plan.
According to the project developers, these highly energy-efficient homes will use ground source heat pumps and solar energy, which, combined with an extremely tight thermal shell, will minimize the building's carbon footprint.
Five of the apartments will be set aside for households that are at risk of or experiencing homelessness. These residents will receive support services from Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA), focusing on housing retention, job-seeking, educational attainment, wellness coaching, and building community connections.
WWHT's Support and Services at Home program (SASH) will also offer individual and community-level services, support, and programming for all residents of the future complex who wish to participate.
Housing that was decades in the making
"I think it's fair to say that the planning horizon for this groundbreaking event has been one of the longest on record," said Elizabeth Bridgewater, executive director of WWHT, to the more than 150 attendees at the ceremony.
The vision for housing on the 3.94-acre parcel in front of the Putney Food Co-op is at least two decades old. While the site was recommended for housing in the 2005 Putney Planning Commission project "Visualizing Density in Putney," it remained unused until 2009, when the Putney Community Gardens members cultivated approximately 1 acre.
The following year, the Putney Farmers Market was established on the northernmost section of the parcel.
In 2019, Putney Gateway Associates, a group of local business owners and residents who had owned the property since 1995, began discussions with WWHT about developing housing on the site.
Bridgewater invited residents involved in the gardens and farmers market who were concerned about losing their land to housing to participate in the planning process. At the ceremony, she said she was proud that the group was able to develop "a concept that met the twin goals of designing a financially feasible housing project while preserving enough space for the gardens and the market."
With a vision in place, WWHT received a zoning permit for construction in 2022 and purchased the property from Putney Gateway Associates in 2023.
Legal challenges and increasing costs
Since then, WWHT has faced legal challenges from several neighboring property owners who appealed the project permits. The project was ultimately approved to move forward after the appellants lost a fourth and final appeal in the Vermont Supreme Court last fall.
Bridgewater said construction prices increased by over 30% during the stalled period, raising the final project cost to $15 million.
The project is being funded by public and private sources, including more than $8 million in federal low-income housing tax credits and $3 million from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Additionally, Brattleboro Housing Partnerships awarded the project eight rental assistance vouchers, which cap rent for eight apartments at 30% of the tenant's income.
The Putney Community Garden and Putney Farmers Market will continue to operate on about an acre of the property, which WWHT will sell to the newly formed nonprofit Green Commons of Vermont to maintain.
Community members voice their support
Pip Bannister, an architect and a member of the Putney Planning Commission for 20 years, shared his perspective on the Alice Holway project.
"I always supported the project, but I had some hesitancy about change. I needed to evaluate whether an increase in density would feel right in this area," he said, pointing to the property. "I've come to terms with it. I think it's important to showcase well-designed, well-built, contemporary models of denser housing."
Burt Tepfer, a resident who was part of the advisory committee for the town's housing needs assessment, expressed his enthusiasm for the development.
"I am so impressed with the effort and coordination by so many dedicated people over such a long time to finally make this project happen," he said. "The need is so great, and I am thrilled that we have made progress in providing more housing in Putney."
Lisa Chase, a resident and steward of the Putney Gardens, has consistently supported the housing project. After the ceremony, she spoke to The Commons, expressing admiration for the collaboration involved.
"I was impressed by all the moving parts that persevered for so long and kept this project alive," she noted, referring to the involvement of local, regional, and state-level entities. "They maintained good intentions - even charity - through the turmoil of the past four years."
"Today's ceremony was impressive," Chase continued. "It marks a new chapter for the town and for future residents to find themselves at home. It's up to us."
Building and strengthening community: A tribute to Alice Holway
Deb Flannery, managing director of community development at the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, a project funder, told attendees that the groundbreaking was "a fitting tribute to Alice Holway who, as a young woman, served in the Women's Land Army during World War I, stepping into the fields when many men were away at war."
A 1991 news story in the Brattleboro Reformer announcing her death at age 91 described Holway as "a well-loved independent woman" who ran the town's first day-care center in her home, which "became a haven for Windham College students."
The longtime manager of the former Aiken Nursery "worked the land with grit and grace, embodying a spirit of strength and service that helped sustain communities like ours through difficult times," Flannery continued.
"Her spirit is carried forward in the five homes that will be set aside specifically for households who are at risk of or currently experiencing homelessness," she said. "Just as Alice once opened her doors to those in need, this community will open its arms - providing not just shelter, but dignity, stability, and belonging."
Kathy Beyer, senior vice president of Evernorth, built on the theme of community.
"We are living in today's politics of a zero-sum mindset, where some people believe that helping those with less advantage might take away something from people who are more advantaged," she said.
"But here today in Putney, we are operating from a place of sharing enough - of a shared community - because we all prosper when we take care," Beyer continued.
"Today, we are building permanently affordable housing that will be affordable for generations to come in Putney," she said. "We're taking care of the community."
This News item by Ellen Pratt was written for The Commons.