BRATTLEBORO-First, the good news: The Town Planning Office has issued at least 54 permits for new housing projects this year - the highest number in years, as town Planning Director Sue Fillion told the Selectboard on Oct. 1.
"That's a conservative estimate of our permitting activity for 2024, actually," Fillion told The Commons later in the week. "We have approved 63 new units as of the end of September. And just so you know, that is the highest number of units that have been approved since 1989."
The bad news? According to the town's Housing Needs Assessment, Brattleboro conservatively needs - right now - 519 new units.
Those new housing units need to provide a home - off the street and out of the parks - to many of the town's unhoused population. And those places need to be affordable (defined by the federal government as a rate where the occupant pays no more than 30% of gross income for housing costs, including utilities).
"I believe that most of the ones we have permitted have been market rate," said Fillion. There is no hard data on the number of market-rate versus affordable units of housing that have been recently permitted. "I don't have that information," she said.
The market has been sky-high for quite a few years now, and is one of the reasons why Brattleboro has seen its homeless population grow larger every year.
The state, since the beginning of the pandemic, has turned a spotlight on what is generally recognized as a housing crisis.
In a written report to the board, Fillion listed measures the department has taken in response.
"We collected data, performed educational outreach, and researched solutions to the housing crisis," she wrote. "We actively participate in the Southeast Housing Coalition, the cross-sector planning body focused on housing and homelessness in the region."
She also said that as the department undergoes permitting and development review processes, "we share information with property owners and developers on local and state funding opportunities to help with the cost of creating or rehabilitating housing. We also proactively advocate for housing when doing development consultation."
Pursuing the 'missing middle'
"We've done a couple things here in Brattleboro that I think are helping make it easier and reducing barriers," Fillion said. "I think in our land use regulations, we have this Missing Middle Housing Overlay District, where you can build more units."
That new designation, adopted in 2023, means that "you can have small apartment blocks, like a four-plex, or something like that, with two below, two above," she said.
"You could have a small cottage court of homes. We've made those as permitted uses. So that helps reduce uncertainty for somebody that wants to take on a project," Fillion said.
She also noted the town had received a $23,980 Bylaw Modernization Grant from the state Agency of Commerce and Community Development, "geared at reducing regulatory barriers for housing development in the developed areas of Brattleboro."
New Act 250 exemptions also help, especially in neighborhood development designations, Fillion told The Commons.
"Some of the builders that we've talked to have done more units because it didn't trigger Act 250," she said. "So I think it doesn't hurt that we are talking about the lack of housing in our region, and letting people know that we're open to housing development. Because we need housing."
This kind of "infill housing" has already provided new living spaces in town.
Take the TD Bank building at 215 Main St., bought in 2022 by JMS Mich LLC, a Manhattan private developer, which has added 13 units of market rate housing, on the upper floors of the bank.
"Planning staff have identified parcels, including those owned by the town, for infill development," she wrote in her report.
In general, Fillion said she is pleased that the regulatory changes and the efforts that the town has been making to promote housing appear to be paying off.
"We hope that more people will consider developing housing," Fillion said. "We need all types of housing for all incomes. And anybody who's interested in creating housing units is welcome to talk to the planning department."
This News item by Joyce Marcel was written for The Commons.