Community Development
- Details
associate director: susan Westa
Guided by its Community Development Committee, WRC works to help its member towns and the overall region on housing, community resources and economic development issues and projects. WRC’s brownfields work is guided by the community development needs of the region.
Recent efforts include helping towns in the region with planning for broadband fiber development and village center and downtown planning and revitalization. WRC also actively participates in the Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategy (SEVEDS).
4 Town Housing Collaborative
The 4-Town Housing Collaborative will explore opportunities for the towns of Jamaica, Londonderry, Weston, and Winhall to work together to identify solutions to address the housing crisis. WRC has partnered with the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Center for Resilient Metro Regions in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Foundation’s Communities by Design (CxD) program to assist the communities. This is a voluntary effort led by the town’s Planning Commissions and Housing Committees. It is not binding but designed to help the town’s think regionally about addressing housing needs.
- Homes for Us! (large file), Final Report by AIA Communities by Design and UMASS Landscape Architectural and Regional Planning Program
- 4 Town Housing News Story, GNAT
- Public Meeting Recording, Part I GNAT – 9/24/2024
- Public Meeting Recording Part II, GNAT – 9/26/2024
- Homes for Us Presentation Slides – 9/26/2024
- Housing Needs Presentation Slides- 9/24/2024
- Housing Needs Assessment Report – developed by UMASS
Housing Resource Workshop
WRC and Windham Windsor Housing Trust hosted a Housing Resource Share in April 2024. Available resources were presented and towns shared their housing work. The slides can be found below.
Housing Coalition of Southeastern Vermont
The Housing Coalition of Southeastern Vermont is the cross-sector planning body focused on housing and homelessness in the Windham region. The goals of the Coalition are to end homelessness, support a healthy housing ecosystem, and prepare the community for future housing development opportunities. For more information please see the links below to resources prepared by the Coalition:
VT Designation 2050
Vermont’s State Designation Programs (downtowns and village centers) include more than 200 municipalities. Managed by the Department of Housing & Community Development, they provide benefits such as tax incentives, grant funding, technical assistance and regulatory relief.
The Vermont Legislature authorized an evaluation and reform project for 2023, to review how well the programs are working and develop recommendations for strengthening, streamlining, and modernizing the programs in the future. The Executive Summary and full report can be found at the following link:
Windham Aging
Windham Aging is a Collaboration of organizations who care about older Vermonters in Windham County. The Collaboration consists of leaders and experts in healthcare and social determinants of health among those aged 60+. The team is composed of leaders from various organizations who address these issues and needs.
2021 Housing Webinar Series
The Housing Webinar Series was cosponsored by the Windham Regional Commission, Windham Windsor Housing Trust and the Mt. Ascutney Regional Commission. Three webinars presented in the fall of 2021 examined strategies communities can pursue to attract new affordable housing. Links to recordings of the webinars and slides are below:
- How to Address Housing Needs in Your Town presented by Peter Paggi and Elizabeth Bridgewater from Windham Windsor Housing Trust. A link to the slides is included here.
- Village Center Housing and Infrastructure presented by WRC’s Executive Director, Chris Campany. A link to the slides is included here.
- Zoning for Great Neighborhoods presented by Susan Westa, WRC’s Community Development Lead and Jason Rasmussen, Executive Director at the Mt. Ascutney Regional Commission.
2021 Looking Forward Webinars Series Moves Ahead
The fourth webinar in the series, Urine Diversion, An Alternative Approach to Wastewater Disposal, was held in June 2021. The webinar, presented by the Rich Earth Institute, shared information about this innovative approach that can help protect water resources, as well as make productive use of this valuable nutrient.
Please see the links below to view previous Looking Forward Webinars:
Urine Diversion, June 16, 2021
Conservation Subdivisions, April 21, 2021
Revitalization Financing, February 24, 2021
Community Development Models, October 28, 2020
Opportunity Zone Presentation
This presentation was shared at the Community Development Committee meeting on August 14, 2020 by Jessica Dominguez and Joe Ferrari from EPA Region 1. Opportunity Zones are an important redevelopment tool and can be combined with other financing, including brownfields funds, to close the funding gap and bring properties back to life. Click here for the presentation.
A Downtown and Village Revitalization Resource
WRC, along with Bennington County Regional Commission, has developed a website, Strengthening Southern Vermont, to assist southern Vermont communities with downtown and village center revitalization. This website, developed with EDA Disaster Recovery Funds, provides a toolkit of information and resources to help communities build vibrancy and economic resiliency. Among the resources are links to useful guides and information, implementation strategies, funding sources, case studies, and government and non-profit entities that offer additional information.
Community Development