This story by Emma-Roth Wells was first published in the Valley News on July 30, 2025.
HARTFORD — The Norwich Farmers’ Market and Twin Pines Housing both have big plans for a parcel in Norwich, but in order for those plans to come fruition, the nonprofits need access to Hartford’s water and sewer infrastructure.
Last week, the Hartford Selectboard voted unanimously (outgoing board member Brandon Smith and Chairwoman Mary Erdei were absent) to continue exploring the possibility of allowing the two nonprofits to hook up to Hartford’s infrastructure.
The town has the capacity to support these projects but a study needs to be done, at the nonprofits’ expense, to see whether there needs to be upgrades to the system downstream to ensure no current water and sewer customers would be negatively affected, Chris Holzwarth, Hartford’s assistant director of planning and permitting, said during the meeting.
Allowing Twin Pines and the market to hook-up to Hartford’s infrastructure could be a money maker for the town.
“This is essentially revenue in,” Holzwarth said.
The board’s vote came after it heard a presentation by Andrew Winter, executive director of Twin Pines Housing, and Peggy Allen, board member of the Upper Valley Agricultural Association and co-owner of Junction Fiber Mill.
“We were thrilled the Selectboard was willing to entertain this initial request,” Winter said in a phone interview.
The Upper Valley Agricultural Association, a nonprofit formed by the Norwich Farmers’ Market, has signed a purchase and sale agreement to buy a 35-acre parcel for $750,000 across Route 5 from the market’s current summer location. The aim of the purchase is to give the market a permanent location and more space.
Twin Pines Housing — a nonprofit that develops and manages affordable housing in the Upper Valley — hopes to build approximately 30 affordable rental units on land owned by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley on Palmer Court adjacent to the farmers’ market’s new parcel.
The Unitarian Universalist church’s property is one of two lots in Norwich that is already served by Hartford water and sewer, John Haverstock, Hartford’s town manager, said. The other is The Family Place Parent Child Center, located across the street from the church.
Both nonprofits say access to to Hartford’s water and sewer infrastructure is important to allow the projects to move forward.
Without Hartford’s municipal water and sewer, Twin Pines is prepared to walk away from the Norwich project, Winter said.
“There’s a lot of risk without public water,” he said.
In 2023, Twin Pines applied for a permit to connect to the New London-Springfield Water Precinct system for a 60-unit workforce housing project on Country Road in New London. The precinct denied the project, citing a lack of capacity on the system.
After the denial, Twin Pines drilled five wells before getting one with sufficient water supply, only to find the ground water had been contaminated by a nearby dry cleaning business.
The project is still tied up over water access issues.
“It’s cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Winter said during the meeting. “It’s something that we’re not prepared to undertake again because you don’t know when you’re drilling for wells what you’re going to find.”
The Norwich rental units would be the first of their kind in the town. The town’s affordable housing is limited to two properties, Winter said: Starlake Village, an affordable home ownership program with 14 houses managed by Twin Pines, and 24 units of affordable senior housing owned by the Norwich Housing Corporation, a nonprofit developed in the 1970s.
“Folks have said to me frequently that Norwich really needs to do its part,” Winter said during the meeting referring to Norwich’s lack of affordable housing. “We need water and sewer to do that.”
Twin Pines has been discouraged from exploring housing development in Norwich because of the lack of infrastructure, Winter said.
Meanwhile the Farmers’ Market is committed to carrying out plans for a 7,000-square-foot building on the new parcel even without Hartford’s infrastructure. Still, a feasibility study found that constructing a septic system to support a building of that size on the property would be challenging, Allen said.
The farmers’ market currently leases property from Co-op Food Stores from May to October for its summer market and holds its winter market in Tracy Hall.
Overall, the Farmers’ Market “is an incredible success,” Allen said at the meeting.
The market, which will have its 50th anniversary next year, has up to 2,500 patrons each Saturday in the summer season, Allen said.
For some of the farms that have a regular spot, sales at the market represent 50-75% of their annual income, Allen said. “It is a vital outlet for the farms in our region,” she said.
But the market could be better. “A lot of locals are choosing not to go because the parking is abysmal,” she said. Flooding, cars getting stuck and vendors being “knee-deep in mud” at the summer market is also an issue.
In addition to addressing the parking situation, the plan aims to give vendors “a little more elbow room,” by constructing the building to host the market and agricultural education year-round, Allen said.
“We’re just incredibly excited about the potential to have an open space with parking,” she said.
Allen envisions workshops on how to preserve produce, seminars on invasive species and lessons on how to conserve land all held at the potential building.
“This market that represents the Upper Valley deserves a permanent home,” she said.
Hartford resident Linda Miller spoke out in support of the projects at last week’s meeting.
“This is the first time I’ve heard a proposal for a project from Twin Pines that I’m so excited about,” she said. “It’s answering the question I’ve been asking: Why aren’t other towns stepping forward? And this will be another town stepping forward.”
A former vendor at the Norwich Farmers’ Market, Miller said she has not been to the market this summer because of the lack of parking. “I miss it, so this would be huge if Norwich Farmers’ Market could move across the street and have a little elbow room,” she said.
While both projects are still in the preliminary stages and no final decisions about whether either will be able to use Hartford’s water and sewer have been made, Selectboard member Miranda Dupre expressed her excitement.
“I’m really proud of our town and nonprofits for working across these lines,” she said.
Winter expects studying the feasibility of using Hartford’s water and sewer system for the projects will be completed over the course of the next year.
