[B]RATTLEBORO – It may take longer than expected to move low-income residents out of a floodplain in West Brattleboro.
Brattleboro Housing Partnerships has scrapped a plan, announced earlier this year, to build a 20- to 25-unit apartment complex on roughly 3 acres near the bottom of the former Austine School campus.
That new complex would have accommodated the remaining residents of Melrose Terrace, a development that was overrun by Tropical Storm Irene’s floodwaters in 2011.
However, the housing agency said the intended building site has proven inadequate for its needs.
Now officials are searching for a different location for Melrose residents, but their choices seem to be dwindling.
“It has become much more challenging than we imagined it would be,” said Christine Hart, the housing partnerships’ executive director. “We just have to keep turning over every place we can.”
Melrose Terrace, which has 80 apartments for seniors and people with disabilities, sustained heavy damage when Irene’s rains sent Whetstone Brook over its banks in August 2011.
Officials repaired Melrose but immediately began searching for replacement housing. One solution was the 55-unit Red Clover Commons complex in Brattleboro, which opened last year and cost $16 million.
With that project finished, officials at Brattleboro Housing Partnerships turned their attention to the former Austine School for the Deaf campus. That 177-acre property off Maple Street in Brattleboro was purchased by the Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development in 2016.
But it turns out the site can’t host the project that Brattleboro Housing Partnerships had planned.
“They ended up discovering that, given the limitations of the size and shape … they could only get 10 to 15 units on that lot. And they need 20 to 25,” said Chloe Learey, Winston Prouty’s executive director.
Hart said one problem was a “fairly good-sized wetland” that would have required a buffer from development. Other complications include drainage issues and proximity to the highway and street.
The housing agency might have been able to build something on the site, but “it would have to be smaller than what we need,” Hart said. “We really don’t want to break this project up into yet another building. You’re really losing the economy of scale.”
“This is why you always have a lot of due diligence on a piece of property,” she added.
Hart said she wants to explore other potential sites on the Prouty campus. But if that doesn’t work, she said, “our options are getting really tight.”
Brattleboro Housing Partnerships wants a location that works for predominantly elderly tenants. Walkability and proximity to services are two key attributes.
Technically, the agency isn’t on a schedule. But the second phase of the Melrose relocation project can’t be put off indefinitely.
“I feel a sense of urgency,” Hart said. “I really want to get this thing done.”
Winston Prouty administrators also are motivated to move forward with their plans for the former Austine property.
A site plan says the campus will be developed “in a way that supports mission-driven uses that include nonprofit and other community uses.” Ultimately, the goal is for Winston Prouty to own its current home, Vermont Hall, with the remainder of the property occupied by other owners and tenants.
“That will take some time,” Learey said. “I think it will be several years before that happens.”
