The writer is a member of the Putney Housing Solutions Task Force, a community group born from a Vermont Council on Rural Development site visit to town.
PUTNEY-With so many factors making Vermont a challenging place to live - harsh winters, high cost of living, excessive flooding, minimal jobs, an aging population, and loss of small businesses - I do not believe adding contention and divisiveness around building housing a smart strategy to attract and welcome new residents.
Two of Vermont's most valuable assets are community and a village lifestyle different from New York City or Minneapolis. I believe the largest increase of Vermont's population was during the back-to-the-land movement in the '60s, where residents across political divides worked together, growing in connection and resilience.
In Putney, a small southern Vermont village that has become a hotbed of contention regarding housing, I can attest to the negative impacts of pushing controversial developments at any cost.
In the last two years our village has built a dozen low- and moderate-income apartments downtown, while a large development is held up in litigation, ultimately fueled by a pre-development process that didn't achieve community buy-in from the surrounding neighbors and residents.
As the developer continues to push the project despite the growing resistance, writing letters to newspapers that provoke and inflame the issue instead of negotiating, Putney community members have to endure the upset that ripples out from it.
Now, large developers want our Vermont representatives to pass new laws that take power out of the hands of our communities, so more can be wielded through theirs.
Anyone who calls this a good housing strategy (or being good neighbors) must not love the same community-oriented Vermont that I do.
Let's focus on what works.
In Putney, healthy community-building is what has worked to get in-law apartments, triplexes, and fourplexes built. The Department of Housing & Community Development's Vermont Homes for All Toolkit suggests processes that achieve community buy-in for development. We can build housing that strengthens rather than polarizes our communities.
I've witnessed this pre-development model work firsthand. When the party who is developing or creating housing is willing to sincerely listen to those impacted by their projects and in some cases modify the project, the housing development happens. And it happens quickly through our town channels that are set up to aid in these negotiations.
Putney wants more housing to be built. Whether or not we agree on who, what, where, and how, I hope we can agree that development should not come at any cost. Building housing and community, together, works.
Marcella Eversole
Putney
The writer is a member of the Putney Housing Solutions Task Force, a community group born from a Vermont Council on Rural Development site visit to town.
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