Champlain Housing Trust has filed plans to redevelop Harbor Place in Shelburne into affordable multifamily housing.
Before demolition of two buildings on that site, Harbor Place motel guests will be relocated to the Days Inn across the street that the trust bought last year, said Chris Donnelly, spokesperson for the Champlain Housing Trust.
“We don’t have the permits to tear down the buildings yet, so at some point in the next couple of months we will be moving people across the road,” he told VTDigger.
The motel provides temporary lodging for people experiencing homelessness.
Permit applications filed with the Shelburne Planning Commission indicate the 4.83-acre parcel at 3164 Shelburne Road has eight buildings providing 58 motel units. Some existing buildings will be renovated; the rest will be demolished and replaced with new structures to provide affordable rental and homeownership units, according to the plans.
Harbor Place is currently at capacity and the Days Inn across the street can accommodate all the guests. The Days Inn will be renamed Harbor Place and will continue to provide adults with temporary housing and services, Donnelly said.
The new development will be called Bay Ridge and will provide 94 units of housing, according to the permit applications. It will involve:
- Renovation of 20 motel units in two buildings into 12 efficiency and eight one-bedroom affordable rental units.
- Two new 24-unit buildings facing Shelburne Road with a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units.
- Seven new buildings with a total of 26 two- and three-bedroom units.
- A new access road — Margaret’s Way — with utility infrastructure.
- Code-compliant stormwater management.
- A new park and “multifaceted outdoor and pedestrian-friendly street and landscape.”
Champlain Housing Trust’s application for site plan approval is scheduled to be reviewed by the town’s Development Review Board next Wednesday, May 18, Ken Belliveau, the board’s coordinator, said in an email.
Champlain Housing Trust bought the Days Inn for $6 million in December. A $7.3 million grant from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board via the federal American Recovery Plan Act will cover the acquisition, rehabilitation and development costs of the new project, according to a press release.
This is the eighth hotel that the trust has purchased in eight years, spread across six municipalities in Chittenden County. Together, they help in a variety of ways, from providing emergency shelter to people escaping domestic violence to providing permanent housing and resident services.
“It is no secret that there’s a severe shortage of affordable housing in Chittenden County, and being able to build more in a community like Shelburne is a great opportunity,” Michael Monte, CEO of Champlain Housing Trust, said in the press release.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misnamed Harbor Place in one reference.
