NORWICH — Town officials will consider grant funding to study the feasibility of building affordable housing on a challenging parcel of town-owned property.

On Tuesday the Norwich Planning Commission voted 6-1 to support a memo asking the Selectboard to authorize a planning grant application to study housing opportunities on New Boston Road.

The Affordable Housing Subcommittee, which authored the memo, is a seven-member board created to study ways to increase the diversity, affordability and environmental sustainability of Norwich’s housing stock — the central objective of the town’s strategic housing plan.

“There is such a huge need here,” Jeff Lubell, the subcommittee’s chairman, said. “We need to rededicate ourselves to finding land and paths forward to ensure that the people who work in Norwich, (as well as future generations) can afford to live here, and that there are opportunities for people as they age to downsize.”

Lubell, who has served six years on the Affordable Housing Subcommittee, also is the director of Housing and Community Initiatives at Abt Associates, a government research and consulting company based in Cambridge, Mass.

Lubell said the subcommittee has spent the last few years identifying viable public properties in Norwich that could support affordable housing.

One property is on New Boston Road, a 22-acre, town-owned parcel of land, about half of which houses the town transfer station, the Department of Public Works garage and a communications tower.

The subcommittee seeks to study the feasibility of developing the northern end, which contains approximately 10 to 12 acres of unused land about “a quarter-mile” from the transfer station.

To fund the study, the subcommittee needs the Selectboard’s approval to apply for a Vermont Community Development Program planning grant, in which the state would provide $60,000 of the funds and the town would provide a 10% match of $6,000.

According to the subcommittee, the New Boston Road site would be a preferable site for state funding opportunities because of its downtown location.

However, the site’s proximity to the town transfer station also raises concerns from town officials, including members of the Selectboard — who were introduced to the proposal last November.

“There are a lot of issues that need to be investigated,” Lubell said. “There are slopes, regulatory issues with water and wastewater and other questions that have to be answered, that a planning grant would be an effective way of answering.”

One major question is whether the soil is contaminated. There had been a landfill at the southern end of the property near the transfer station, according to Lubell. While past and present staff had no recollection of a landfill on the land sought for development, former Town Manager Neil Fulton “described finding some buried trash bags north of the (transfer station) entrance.”

“Anytime you’re building on a site that is even remotely close to a place where there used to be a landfill, you want to be sure there’s no environmental contamination of that site,” Lubell said. “(Even if) it was a quarter of a mile away from where we want to develop, it’s still important to be cautious and to investigate further.”

Lubell said the feasibility study would be a prerequisite to access public funding for an environmental assessment.

“To (apply for those funds) you need to have a viable project first,” Lubell said. “It’s kind of the ‘chicken or the egg’ in terms of what to do first, and after talking with a number of people we determined that the most practical and effective process would be to first move forward with the planning grant and to determine whether a project is feasible.”

Selectboard members also raised concerns last year about violating the state “environmental justice” policy — which prohibits low-income citizens from being disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards or unsafe housing.

According to Lubell, Selectboard members were concerned that an entrance to the proposed housing site would have to pass through the transfer station and public works garage, which may constitute a violation of the state policy.

The planning study, according to Lubell, would investigate the feasibility of creating a new entrance further north that does not pass by the garage or transfer station.

The subcommittee would also seek a property design that minimizes or eliminates any view of the southern property development.

The subcommittee has not discussed housing types, such as single-family homes or multi-family homes, as that will be more determinable from information provided by the planning grant, Lubell said.

A condition of the planning grant would require any development to make at least half of its units affordable to people earning 80% or less of the area median income in Windsor County. The median family income in Windsor County, which is used to determine income eligibility for subsidized housing, is $97,630. 

Lubell said he does not know when the Selectboard will consider the grant request, though the subcommittee would like to know before July 22 if the Selectboard is comfortable with supporting the proposal. The next deadline to apply for the state planning grant is Sept. 12.

The subcommittee is also looking at potential sites for affordable housing in the Norwich Fire District, which owns over 800 acres of land. Lubell said the Fire District administrators are currently considering a proposal of delegating “two to four places” where affordable homes could be built.

The subcommittee would also invite private donations of land, Lubell said.

“There is a lot of vacant land in Norwich and there are landowners who I believe would make land available if they knew we were looking for it,” Lubell said. “One of the biggest challenges has been reaching them and letting them know about our interests.”

Patrick Adrian may be reached at padrian@vnews.com or at 603-727-3216.

CLARIFICATION: The median family income in Windsor County, which is used to determine income eligibility for subsidized housing, is $97,630. A previous version of this story cited different income data, making the eligibility threshold unclear.