Compass Points: Developer pitches workforce townhomes using new state CHIP program
Every story that serves Vermonters has value, no matter who reports it. This one is from The Valley Reporter | Lisa Loomis
The Valley Reporter | Lisa Loomis — A Mad River Valley developer becomes an early test of Vermont's new CHIP housing tool
The Valley Reporter’s Lisa Loomis reports that developer Aron Shea has asked the Waitsfield Select Board to partner on a workforce-housing project off Route 100: 25 to 50 owner-occupied townhomes aimed at $350,000 to $400,000, clustered on about 12 acres of a 46-acre parcel with the rest preserved as open space, and financed in part through Vermont’s new Community and Housing Infrastructure Program. Permanent deed restrictions would aim to hold prices down, require year-round occupancy and limit speculative resale. The board signaled interest while pressing on the obvious question — whether those price guarantees would actually hold.
Why it matters beyond the Valley: CHIP only launched at the end of January, so this is one of the first times most Vermonters will watch the program reach for real ground. It’s project-based tax increment financing — a town fronts the cost of roads, water and wastewater and pays it back out of the new tax revenue the housing throws off, without raising anyone’s rate. The promise is genuine; the unproven part is the affordability covenant, which is precisely where Waitsfield’s board put its finger. Read Loomis’s full account, and watch whether the deed restrictions hold their line.
The Valley Reporter | Lisa Loomis — A Mad River Valley developer becomes an early test of Vermont’s new CHIP housing tool