Williston
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FEBRUARY 9, 2023
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Housing: unaffordable and unavailable Needs assessment offers prescriptions for Williston’s housing crunch BY JASON STARR Observer staff
Williston needs a “radical change” to the current rate of home construction to achieve a healthy housing market and ensure people who work here can also live here. That’s one conclusion of a comprehensive housing needs assessment delivered in draft form Tuesday to the planning commission. The report was completed Feb. 2 by the Planning and Zoning Department with the help of the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission and the Vermont Housing Finance Agency. The assessment quantifies housing deficiencies that make it difficult to impossible for a portion of the town’s workforce
Homes near Maple Tree Place are among the few in Williston that are deed-restricted as affordable. OBSERVER FILE PHOTO
to live locally and recommends policies the town could enact to increase housing availability and affordability. “It covers a really broad range of challenges, gaps and
potential solutions,” Planning Director Matt Boulanger said. “It’s daunting but it is optimistic. The solutions are there.” Williston has the highest ratio of jobs to homes in Chitten-
den County and is at least 3,500 homes short of meeting the demands of its current workforce, according to the report. It anticipates that only a fraction of that gap (463 homes) will be built in
rescues. A group of neighbors has hired an attorney from the Burlington law firm of Paul Frank and Collins to appeal the permit approval. An appeal hearing is set for 7 p.m. March 14 in front of the Williston Development Review Board (DRB). The neighbors are planning to testify to the negative impact the dog rescue has had on the neighborhood. Meanwhile, Pederzani is appealing to Vermont Environmental Court the DRB’s November decision to deny the operation a home business permit. Representing the neighbors — 17 in all — attorney Mark Hall argues that Pederzani should not have been allowed to apply for another permit after her November application was denied.
Vermont English Bulldog Rescue owner Dawna Pederzani greets a rescue dog in the garage on Lamplite Lane where the nonprofit continues to operate, over the objections of neighbors.
Bulldog battle escalates
BY JASON STARR Observer staff
In response to protests from neighbors on Lamplite Lane and a zoning violation notice from the Town of Williston, the Vermont English Bulldog Rescue has scaled back its operation and received a town permit to continue saving homeless dogs from out of state. That has only strengthened the resolve of people living nearby to have it shut down or relocate from the neighborhood. The town planning and zoning department issued a home business permit to Vermont English Bulldog Rescue founder Dawna Pederzani on Jan. 20. The town imposed operating conditions that would clear up the prior zoning violation and allow the nonprofit to contin-
“(It) results in smells, noise and traffic, which, in the context of a residential neighborhood, is a nuisance, and this is not expected to change.” Mark Hall Attorney for Lamplite Lane area neighbors
ue operating near the corner of Lamplite and Pine lanes, the residential area where it has been located since 2010, growing in the number and breed of dogs it
Williston by 2025. “Furthermore, demand for homes is likely to increase … putting additional pressure on affordability,” the report states. The report delves into the affordability issue, noting that home sale prices and rents have both increased at a faster rate than wages and household incomes. Over the last 10 years, home prices and rents have increased at an average annual pace of 5 percent, with the median home sale price in 2022 at $480,250 and the median rent at $1,647. When the cost of a home (including utilities, insurance, taxes and homeowners association fees) exceeds 30 percent of monthly income, planners consider it unaffordable. In Williston, about 70 percent of renters and 21 percent of homeowners spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, according to the report.
see BULLDOG page 9
see HOUSING page 8
OBSERVER PHOTO BY JASON STARR