The City Council's 2024 Actionable Plan calls for a walkable, well-connected neighborhood with at least 300 new homes featuring diverse housing types and densities, and prioritizing pedestrian and bicycle access.

We propose to acquire the entire area being made available, 35 acres including internal roads. Currently our design develops 17.5 acres for lots and requires roughly another 15 acres for roads, grading and stormwater management (“disturbed area”). However, some types of PUDs require land to be set aside in conservation.¹ Rather than leave land vulnerable to future development, we propose conserving as much land for recreation and agriculture as possible. The conserved land could go back to the City or to a trust.

¹There is a question what the minimum lot size is for Rural District in Montpelier. Vermont statute says minimum lot size cannot be more than 8,712 sf when the site is served by water and sewer.

At this time we propose 340 dwellings; this leaves us ample room to modify initial ideas and to accommodate infrastructure and amenities that will evolve as we proceed. The core 300 homes, plus a possible 16 efficiency condos, will be 100% workforce² affordable if we can make funding work. A key part of our vision is home ownership, hopefully to the 50% percentile of AMI.

² Vermont Housing Finance Agency determines the average median income (AMI) for central Vermont, and affordability is measured against this benchmark. Workforce households are defined as those who earn up to 15O% of the AMI in a region.