The proposed redevelopment of the former Bennington High School is exempt from Vermont’s Act 250 permitting, a decision that came just days after Bennington officials set aside $2 million for the project.
Under the proposal, the town of Bennington plans to partner with a private developer to convert the 1913 building into a mixed-use property. The town is seeking to create a community space for offices and recreation, while developer Hale Resources plans to build around 40 residential units.
Because the housing proposal involves more than nine units, it typically would have required a permit under Act 250, the state’s land use and development law. But the Vermont Natural Resources Board waived this requirement last week, finding that the proposal met the state’s criteria for a “priority housing project.”
It checks the boxes on location, number of units and being a mixed-use or mixed-income housing project, according to the board’s decision, which was issued Oct. 27.
Project organizers said the Act 250 exemption would speed up construction work and financing. The town estimates the community space could cost up to $9 million. Hale Resources expects to spend around $10 million on the housing units.
“It makes it a much more competitive project, I feel, when it comes to applying for grants and stuff, because we’re shovel-ready,” said Zak Hale, co-partner at Hale Resources, which requested the Act 250 review. “We don’t have that uncertainty of being held up in environmental court or something like that and not understanding how long it’s going to take us to actually be able to break ground.”
The Main Street building, included on the National Register of Historic Places, is in a designated downtown development district. It would offer residences for different income levels, including 15 units that Hale Resources said will be permanently categorized as affordable housing.
The property’s design for mixed use is also key to becoming a priority housing project. Some 70,000 square feet would constitute the residential portion. The remaining 30,000 square feet would go to the town’s community space: new homes for the Bennington Senior Center and the county’s Meals on Wheels program, as well as location for a YMCA gymnasium and some workrooms.
There’s no limit to the number of residential units that could be created under this priority housing projec,t because Bennington’s population has crossed over 10,000.
The Vermont Natural Resources Council, which supported Act 250’s priority housing project exemption, said the program is a way to speed up the construction of affordable housing in target locations.
“We tend to be very leery of exemptions from Act 250, because Act 250, we don’t see it as a barrier to development. We see it as a barrier to bad development,” said Brian Shupe, the council’s executive director. “In this case, there’s a clear public interest in having redevelopment in these areas.”
Hale Resources said construction at the former high school could begin sometime between June and September 2023, with work simultaneously being done on the residences and community space.
But first, the Bennington Selectboard would need to green-light the town’s participation. In a meeting on Oct. 24, the seven-member board unanimously voted to allocate $2 million of federal coronavirus relief funding to the community space’s first phase of construction.
But board members said no money would be spent until the town can find another $1.2 million to complete phase one, creating new space for the Bennington Senior Center and the county’s Meals on Wheels program.
“I think it’s important to make sure people are aware that committing this funding is not the same as spending this funding,” Selectboard member Tom Haley said at the meeting. “We can always uncommit it.”
In the next four months, designated town employees expect to look into obtaining the additional funding, such as tax credits, loans, rebates, grants and donations. They plan to report to the board every 45 days or when there’s a significant update to share.
Bennington’s community development director, Shannon Barsotti, said the town is working with partners such as Goldstone Architecture and Engelberth Construction to find ways to bring costs down. She believes the community space’s total cost will be somewhere in the middle of the current estimate of $9 million and the first estimate of $4 million.
Hale Resources is responsible for funding the housing construction, and it’s exploring a combination of grants, tax credits, private investors and bank financing.
The private developer has said that Bennington’s allocating $2 million toward redeveloping the high school, which has largely been vacant since 2004, is a crucial step in securing other funding.
The proposed project has received mixed reviews from local residents.
Some hailed the plan to create more housing units at a time when Vermont’s residential market is becoming increasingly tight, while others worried about project costs that could be passed on to taxpayers.
Several spoke at the Oct. 24 Selectboard meeting about the parking problems that the mixed-use property could create in the Main Street area. Town officials said there’s already a plan for overflow parking if the parking spaces onsite become full.
Some citizens want more public discussion about the project, including suggesting that it should go to a town vote.
Selectboard Chair Jeannie Jenkins said that because the funding schemes being explored right now do not involve spending local taxpayer money and won’t impact residents’ tax bills, the board is not required to put it on the ballot.
The former high school building is now owned by Christopher Gilbert, a resident of Dorset and Red Hook, New York, who bought the property in 2020 for $146,000. The town has an ongoing lease-to-own agreement with Gilbert, but it has an option to terminate this agreement.