Dear West Windsor Resident,
The Planning Commission invites you to attend a Community Input Forum on Saturday, February 1st at 10am at the Town Hall. The Planning Commission is seeking to understand and address affordable housing in West Windsor with the goal of increasing the housing supply for local workers, seniors and families. "Affordable" means that the cost of housing (rent, or mortgage plus utilities, property taxes and insurance) does not exceed 30% of household income. The Planning Commission wants to develop a roadmap for ensuring that people who work in our community can stay in our community.
Several developments have led us to this effort. Our community is growing older; home prices have increased; student enrollment at Albert Bridge has been falling; lack of housing has prevented us from hiring teachers; and the State has recently passed legislation in support of moderately-priced housing and to reduce environmental permitting hurdles. A recent survey as part of the Town's "Between the Bridges and Beyond" project showed that 92% of Town respondents believe that affordable housing is important.
The Town, using a federal grant, has engaged the team of Banwell Architects (Lebanon, NH), DeWolfe Engineering (Montpelier) and Jack Dugan, Project Financing Consultant (Dublin, NH) to help us evaluate our options, identify good opportunities, and figure out how we could move forward. The Town's goal is to be proactive and do sufficient prep work to attract self-financed, high-quality builders who can deliver attractive affordable homes.
Your participation and support are key to our success. At the Forum, we will share data on where we currently stand as a community, project tasks and timeframes, and ideas about potential housing solutions. At this stage we do not know all of the answers about adding affordable homes. We invite your questions, thoughts and ideas. And you can speak directly with our consultants who have extensive experience in home design, civil engineering and project finance.
If you have any questions or thoughts before the Forum, please feel free to contact our Town Administrator, Matt Frederick, at 802-484-3520 or townadmin@westwindsorvt.org.
We look forward to seeing you!
Al Keiller, Chair, Planning Commission
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