Housing remained out of reach for many in 2024, as the cost of building and buying homes has skyrocketed. Though, local organizations and municipalities saw some progress this year in their efforts to alleviate the housing crunch.

In Middlebury, crews broke ground on Stonecrop Meadows, a 218-unit residential neighborhood to be built in phases on 35 acres off Seminary Street Extension. Middlebury College trustees in October agreed to invest $2.5 million to support the effort. The college has played a key role in the housing project, which could see work start on the first mixed-income, multi-family building next spring, if all goes to plan.

Plans were also in the works to build 74 units of mostly workforce housing in Vergennes on land behind the city police station on Main Street. Developer Peter Kahn was working with a partner on a proposal for that project, which could eventually add 50 more units.

In April, the Vergennes City Council took action aimed at helping Kahn build workforce housing elsewhere in the city. Councilors approved a $100,000 loan from the city’s Revolving Loan Fund to Kahn that could help him move ahead with a 14-unit apartment building on Armory Lane, which would be located next to an existing 10-unit apartment complex that opened in June.

Recent changes to Act 250, the state’s land use and development law, have helped guide Kahn’s work on the projects. An Act 250 reform bill (Act 181) passed by the Legislature earlier this year was aimed at making updates to the law that would reduce barriers to building in Vermont while protecting the state’s green spaces.

The bill set up some temporary Act 250 exemptions to encourage housing development, such as one for projects of up to 75 units in certain areas, including part of Vergennes. Those exemptions will be available over the next couple of years.

Other local efforts were also aimed at making it easier to create housing in parts of the county. In November, Bristol voters agreed to adopt amendments to the town’s zoning regulations, which are intended to expand housing opportunities in and around Bristol’s village, particularly by making it easier to develop smaller, affordable homes in the Village Planning Area in accordance with the Bristol Town Plan.

The changes fielded to voters came out of the Bristol Planning Commission’s exploration of potential revisions to the town’s zoning regulations, an effort the committee tackled through its work with a $9,800 Bylaw Modernization Grant Bristol received from the Vermont Agency of Commerce & Community Development in 2022.

Those proposed changes to the town’s zoning regulations include adjustments to the Dimensional Standards to allow for greater flexibility for residential use/housing in the Village Business and Village Mixed districts and “parameters identifying ‘clearly subordinate’ with regard to an Accessory Dwelling Unit.”

As 2024 wrapped up, a proposal that would give Vergennes zoning officials greater flexibility in handling some applications, including for proposals to create more housing units, was making its way through the channels.

The proposal would allow the city’s zoning administrator or Vergennes Development Review Board to approve some applications if they conformed with more lenient state housing-density standards, even if they wouldn’t yet be allowed by current city zoning and subdivision regulations.

The Vergennes City Council in December agreed to warn the amended regulations and a public hearing on the changes was slated for January.