The face of Addison County communities is changing — literally. Big building projects started in Middlebury, Vergennes and elsewhere will result in some major change in the appearances of several Addison County villages and downtowns.

One of the last big building stories of 2023 was the breaking of ground for a big 7,000-square-foot expansion of Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater, and work has proceeded on the project throughout 2024. As the year ends, the large brick façade looks complete and interior work should wrap up in the next few months.

Another big project that saw the first baby steps in December 2023 was Vergennes Grand, a $25 million senior living project in the heart of the city. That elderly housing complex, when complete within months, will house up to 82 seniors, mostly of modest means, in a facility fronting the Vergennes city green. It will blend 40,000 square feet of new construction with a 10,000-square-foot restored building at 34 North St., formerly known as Vergennes Residential Care.

In May, Middlebury residents voted, 956-200, to back a $17 million bond to expand and remodel the 100-year-old Ilsley Public Library. Much of the rest of the year was spent planning for the big makeover, which will remove 1977 and 1988 additions to the original 1924 stone building then add a new, 8,000-square-foot, two-story addition on its northeast side. The new-and-improved facility will boast double the space for youth services; new activity and conference/flex rooms; a new “early learning” area; new spaces catering to teens and ‘tweens; a new outdoor programming area; two additional small meeting rooms; a larger community meeting room; and redesigned adult reading rooms and gathering spots.

Ilsley worked out a deal with National Bank of Middlebury to make some of its collection and services available in the lobby of the Duclos building on Main Street. The rest of the collection will be in storage in Vergennes during the 15 or so months that Ilsley is closed during construction.

Middlebury taxpayers were expecting to be responsible for 25% (through a $4.4 million bond) of the total $17 million project cost, with the rest covered by a local option tax surplus fund, state and federal grants, tax credits,  rebates, and private donations. But, late in the year we found out that local taxpayers will have to pony up a larger amount of that $17 million price tag after Ilsley failed to win a $1.5 million grant it had been counting on. Thankfully, in October Middlebury College trustees OK’d a $1 million gift toward the Ilsley, which had been counted on.

A year and a half after it was first announced, work crews in December broke ground on Stonecrop Meadows, a 218-unit residential neighborhood to be built in phases on 35 acres off Middlebury’s Seminary Street Extension. In October, Middlebury College trustees agreed to front developer Summit Properties $2.5 million so it could begin work on roads, street lighting, sidewalks, landscaping and municipal water/sewer connections for Phase 1. This phase will build 80 units of housing with construction on the first Stonecrop structure — a large multi-family building — beginning in April or May.

Something less obvious, but certainly in the multi-million-dollar range, is the required updates of water and sewage systems in Middlebury, Vergennes and Bristol. In the latter town, residents in November OK’d spending $3.95 million on the next phase of a large project to replace 100-year-old water mains in the village.

Middlebury officials in February were working on a 10-year plan for upgrading the community’s 54-mile municipal water system, some of it over 100 years old, which had been springing an alarming number of leaks in prior months. Later in the year, Middlebury residents found out they will likely vote on a proposed $49.5 million makeover of their town’s wastewater treatment plant this coming March. It’s an outlay that would improve the plant’s ability to process sludge, as well as pay for several age-related upgrades to the 24-year-old facility.

In Vergennes, they were moving along in 2024 with a multi-year effort to fix the city’s wastewater treatment system.

In the fall, Bristol and Salisbury found out they were among 14 Vermont communities whose public libraries will share $15.9 million in federal funding for much-needed capital projects. The Salisbury library will use $978,807 of an ARPA grant for lots of infrastructure fixes. Bristol’s Lawrence Memorial Library will receive $483,000 in ARPA funds that will help pay for a new HVAC system, building envelope repairs for structural integrity, as well as electrical and mechanical system updates.

As the year came to a close, the Vergennes Opera House said it has the millions of dollars it needed for its All Access project, which will improve accessibility to theater, the stage and then city hall building. Work begins in February.

Middlebury College continued to make progress on a big new dormitory on campus in 2024. When that building is ready for occupancy late next summer, the college acknowledged this year that it is raising money to take down the Battell Hall dorm and replace it with a new art museum.

2024 set the stage for some other big building infrastructure projects. In Vergennes, state officials from the Department for Children and Families and from Buildings & General Services floated the idea of building a 20,000-square-foot, 14-bed, locked facility on Comfort Hill. It would house young people involved with Vermont courts and criminal justice system. The city is discussing what they would want in return for hosting the facility.

Nearby in Panton, developers said they want to install the state’s largest solar array.