Windham Regional Commission

Community Development

Details

Staff: 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).

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.
- A link to Susan's slides can be found here.
- A link to Jason's slides can be found here.

2021 Looking Forward Webinars Series Moves Ahead

In late 2020 the Windham Regional Commission, developed a new webinar series designed to look at how our region moves forward post pandemic. WRC plans to address a wide array of topics through this webinar series from Brownfields 101 to Climigration (climate migration) with a focus on how these topics affect our region. If you have ideas for topics of interest, please share them with us!

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.