WINDSOR — An architect hired to research the potential redevelopment of the former state prison site on County Road and solicit input from residents and town officials is starting to meet with local leaders this week.

Emily Bell, of Bell Design Studios in Woodstock, will meet with the Selectboard Tuesday, the Windsor Planning Commission on Thursday, with a public hearing scheduled for next week.

Bell was hired by the Mount Ascutney Regional Planning Commission to create a conceptual plan for the roughly 100-acre parcel.

The prison closed in 2017 and the property has since been used occasionally for such things as police training. It is estimated the state spends $250,000 a year to maintain the grounds, which includes several buildings.

“The goal of this whole exercise is to gather feedback from community members and public stakeholders and feed that into information we will bring for legislation in the first quarter of 2024,” Bell said. “The ultimate goal is to provide enough data for the Legislature to feel ready to take the next step on the property, whether that is in the form of leasing some of the acreage, selling acreage or holding it. We really want to facilitate a decision from the Legislature on what form this next phase will take.”

Bell wants to make clear that she will not be presenting a specific proposal on how the site should be redeveloped.

“People should not be nervous about seeing an established idea,” Bell said. “The goal is to present some site information in the form of drawings but we are not at the stage where we are trying to propose exactly what the site should be. We want to get people’s take on a few suggestions. We are using site information we have to generate discussion.”

In 2021, a study committee released a report that highlighted some of the barriers to improving the site or selling it.

It was generally agreed the presence of barbed wire and the poor conditions of most of the buildings hurt the property’s marketability.

When the report was released, Tom Kennedy, executive director of the regional planning commission, said he favored developing a master plan that would include mixed-use development.

While a single-use concept may still be viable, several factors will make that difficult to achieve, Bell said.

These include being state-owned property that will require legislation for changes in use, in addition to having a lot of acreage and several structures that had different uses, such as a milking barn that was used when the prison was a working farm.

“It would be very difficult finding a single user for all of those reasons,” Bell said.

Part of the thinking with a mixed-use approach is that it would allow some of the buildings to remain and be repurposed for something such as light manufacturing, Bell said, adding that housing keeps coming up as another potential use because of the critical shortage of housing stock in Vermont. Water, sewer, power and broadband combine to make the site more attractive for different forms of development.

“This is an opportunity to address potential multiple uses at once,” Bell said.

Bell said at the upcoming meetings she will present data on the site including existing or past studies, list the assets and what needs could be addressed, and collect public input.

“We want to gather as much feedback as possible,” Bell said.

A juvenile detention center proposed for the property was scrapped by the Legislature in early 2022 because of strong opposition from Windsor residents and town officials who have said they don’t not want any use associated with corrections or social ser vices.

The Selectboard meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall, 29 Union St. The Planning Commission will meet on Thursday at 7 p.m. also at Town Hall. The public hearing is set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 20 at the Welcome Center on Railroad Avenue.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pog clmt@gmail.com