Smart Growth and Housing
Creating a range of housing choices is critical to smart growth. Many towns in the Rutland Region value the strong ties to the community and sense of place cultivated by their residents. Creating a range of housing for people of varying incomes and demographic groups means that residents can stay in the town they love no matter in what income level or stage of life they are. It means that the people who serve our towns by teaching our children, plowing the roads, nursing the sick, and volunteering after retirement can live where they choose.
To encourage smart growth around housing in your town, consider these ten policy tips:
1. Create zoning ordinances and town plans that allow a mix of uses in city and village centers. For example, encourage residential uses in upper floors of buildings with ground-floor commercial space.
2. Consider mechanisms such as tax abatements to entice new development on infill lots in existing built-up areas, rather than in rural areas.
3. Provide density bonuses for developers wishing to add pedestrian and bicycle facilities, create affordable housing, provide public open space, or use “green” building materials and techniques.
4. Revise land use regulations to allow a wide variety of residential development, such as affordable housing, in all areas.
5. Implement a program to identify and rehabilitate vacant and abandoned buildings and land. For example, brownfields programs offered at the state and federal level can be used to clean-up contaminated sites, setting the stage for future development.
6. Become educated on limited appreciation housing models, which can provide homeownership opportunities in urban areas.
7. Create design review boards to ensure all new development fits the scale and aesthetics of surrounding properties.
8. Adopt special building codes that relax regulations on the renovation of existing urban buildings.
9. Work with landowners of vacant urban properties to create rent structures that attract new business and residents.
10. Give priority to smart growth projects in the allocation of state and local dollars and federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) programs.
Success Story: The Downtown Crossing Development, Bennington, VT
The Downtown Crossing Development in Bennington is an example of how housing development can be achieved using smart growth principles. Downtown Crossing is a scattered-site urban infill development that created 12 new residential rental units by rehabilitating two historic buildings and building one new energy efficient building.
Many smart growth goals were achieved with the development:
- Used infill properties served by existing municipal facilities such as sewer and water;
- Located in close proximity to public transportation;
- Reused a contaminated site;
- Rehabilitated historic housing stock into new housing units;
- Designed at a scale consistent with surrounding properties;
- Provided formal and informal open spaces;
- Incorporated pedestrian and bicycle modes of transportation; and
Used “Green” building design principals and materials such as solar hot water, super insulation, triple glazed windows, passive solar features, natural lighting, low VOC materials, local materials and creative landscaping.
