Sing for Mother’s Day
Home bill Balancing investment, affordable housing
Chorus, band join forces for concert
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May 2, 2024
Weekly news coverage for Charlotte and Hinesburg
Hinesburg Center II
Coming home
thecitizenvt.com
Developer appeals Act 250 denial LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
The developer proposing a major housing development in Hinesburg is appealing an Act 250 commission’s denial of the project. Hinesburg Center II has been in the works for nearly a decade and received the official green light from the town’s development review board in February last year. Plans call for creating 21 new lots in the town’s village growth area off Route 116 near Patrick Brook and would include 73 new homes — 15 single-family homes, two nine-unit buildings, one six-unit building and one 34-unit building. The project is the third iteration of continued commercial and residential development in the town’s village area. The first two phases included the Creekside Project and Hinesburg Center I, which brought Kinney Drugs, Parkside Cafe and other housing units several years ago. “The appeal is really more of an effort to kind of protect our rights,” said Brett Grabowski, a developer with Milot Real Estate in Williston who co-owns the property with the David Lyman Revocable Trust. The major cause for the denial, according to documents associated with the decision, are concerns about flooding, specifically the fill proposed by the developer to See HINESBURG CENTER II on page 13
PHOTO BY LEE KROHN
How can you complain about Route 7 traffic when this is the view it provides?
What do school budget cuts mean for next year? HABIB SABET STAFF WRITER
After voters approved the Champlain Valley School District’s revised budget this month, the district will have to grapple with staffing reductions and deferred facility maintenance going into the next school year.
The revised $101.8 million budget, which passed by around 1,400 votes on April 16, represents about $5 million in spending cuts from the initial version voters rejected on Town Meeting Day, while still amounting to an almost 6 percent increase from this year’s budget. Despite that increase, the district will have to tighten its belt dramatically next year
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due to rising staffing and facility costs that have led to a chaotic budget year statewide. With the revised budget passed, the district has to scrap 42 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions for next year, including See BUDGET CUTS on page 12