Carly Berlin covers housing and infrastructure for Vermont Public, in partnership with VTDigger.
When Stormy Gammon got the call that she and her family had been approved for an apartment at a new affordable housing complex in Putney, she cried.
Gammon, her husband, and their son had been homeless, living in a shelter unit in Springfield, she said. For a long time, she had felt drawn to Putney: The natural beauty of the small town near Vermont’s southeastern corner had a sort of magic. They moved into their new home over the summer, right next door to a community garden lined by sunflowers.
“Every day when I pick my son up from school, I go out there, I touch the grass,” Gammon said. “I’m just so happy, so happy to be here.”
Gammon and her family are one of 25 households now residing at the Alice Holway Drive Apartments, a project that was delayed by years of legal opposition from neighbors and became something of a poster-child for how a few people can hold up widely-supported new housing projects in Vermont.
Regional and local plans had long identified the site as a good spot for new housing. It’s near the town’s co-op and library and was once part of famed Vermont politician George Aiken’s wildflower nursery. Windham and Windsor Housing Trust began envisioning plans for apartments on Alice Holway Drive seven years ago.
But soon after the housing trust and co-developer Evernorth secured their first permit, a single neighbor appealed. That became the first of four legal challenges over the course of two years.
Neighbors’ concerns included impacts on traffic, the town’s shortage of social services, and a perceived lack of public engagement by the developers and the town as the project came together. Some nearby residents wanted to see the site preserved as a park and worried about disruptions from new neighbors. Courts sided with the developers in each case, and cleared the way for the project to proceed in late 2024.
The project’s price tag ballooned by nearly 50% since its outset, from $10.3 million to $15.3 million, said Elizabeth Bridgewater, executive director of Windham and Windsor Housing Trust.
Even as the housing trust tweaked its designs to save money, interest rates and construction costs escalated while the project stalled. The developers spent $85,000 on legal fees to fight the appeals, she said.
“It’s not right that one person can derail the sentiment of the whole community,” Bridgewater said.
For years, legislators and housing officials have eyed policies to rein in when and how neighbors can challenge new housing, from moving appeals out of the courtroom to attempts to limit who can launch an appeal. But they’ve yet to agree on the best approach. Heading into a new legislative session, lawmakers are considering the concept of “model codes” or “by-right zoning” that attempts to streamline the permitting process and get around project-by-project fights.
The new Alice Holway Drive Apartments are highly energy-efficient, using ground-source heat pumps and solar panels. Five of the apartments were set aside for households experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and Southeast Vermont Community Action provides services on-site.
Funding came from federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits administered by the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, pandemic-era federal relief funds awarded by the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, and a low-interest loan from the Vermont Treasurer’s Office, among other sources.
A 2025 town housing assessment found that Putney needed to add 80 new housing units — 44 homeowner and 36 rental units — by the end of the decade to meet the community’s needs.
