Published: 4/19/2017 12:13:29 AM
Modified: 4/19/2017 11:02:33 AM
White River Junction — Hartford town planners soon will hear public comments about a proposed mixed-income housing development that the Twin Pines Housing Trust would like to build on a 30-acre property off Sykes Mountain Avenue and Lily Pond Road.
Phase one of the $8 million project would see the construction of a three-story residential building with 30 units as early as this fall, while a second phase would add between 12 and 15 townhouse units to what is currently a vacant field north of Sykes Mountain Avenue and west of Lily Pond Road.
The project has cobbled together funding from a variety of sources, including a $750,000 Community Development Building Grant that the town of Hartford helped Twin Pines to apply for.
Project developers, who first filed paperwork on the project last year, have until Thursday to respond to a series of questions posed by Hartford Department of Planning and Development staff.
The staff asked Twin Pines and its partners, the Valley Land Corporation and Lebanon-based Engineering Ventures, to ensure that the dumpster will be compliant with Vermont’s universal recycling law, which will soon begin to require the separation of composting waste. It also asked the company to ensure that the right kind of erosion control fabric will be used, and that a set of oak trees called for in the landscaping plans be replaced with a tree species that would not drop acorns on the parking lot, among other minor issues.
In all, the project will occupy about 6.5 acres of the site, which is just east and downhill along Sykes Mountain Avenue from The Aventine, an 88-unit, $6.4 million residential development planned by developer Earle Simpson, of Norwich.
As part of its mission to provide more affordable housing in the region, Twin Pines directly manages about 390 rental units in the area.
The plans for the project are on file with the Planning and Development Department in Hartford Town Hall. The public hearing for a town permit is scheduled during a meeting of the Hartford Planning Commission, which is set to begin at 6 p.m. on May 8 in the Hartford Town Hall.