Mentor magic
Now showing
Program helps Shelburne Community School kids
Elisabeth Miller offers ‘Journaling in Paint’
Page 6
Page 13
Volume 52 Number 7
Bissonette plans 33-unit townhouse development
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PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #217 CONCORD, NH ECRWSSEDDM
shelburnenews.com
February 16, 2023
Tenderbellies
LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
One of Burlington’s most prominent property owners is making his way to Route 7 in Shelburne with a 33-unit multi-family and townhouse project. Bill Bissonette, owner of Bissonette properties, owns and operates more than 300 apartments in Burlington’s Old North End and New North End and Winooski. The company website boasts the family owned business of over 30 years with “high quality apartments and a wide range of availability and affordability as well as high class custom designed and renovated homes.” Properties listed on its website range anywhere from studio apartments at a $1,500 monthly rent to entire four-bedroom homes at $4,750 a month in addition to utility payments — gas, electric and internet — and additional add-on payments for trash and water. These numbers look to be on par with median rent prices in Shelburne which, in 2019, reached a high of $1,730. The proposed project site is a 1.92-acre lot located on 3807 Shelburne Road in the green corridor district and stormwater overlay district. According to town records, the existing four-bedroom, two-bathroom single-family home and detached garage that currently sits on the property was bought on June 6, 2021, for $275,700. The home is currently listed on Bissonnette properties website for rent beginning in June at $3,600 per month. The development plan for the property proposes two residential building structures with a total of 33 units. The first residential building fronts Shelburne Road and consists of nine attached townhomes. Parking for the townhomes includes one interior garage space and one exterior space in See BISSONETTE on page 8
COURTESY PHOTO
The Tenderbellies in concert. The group is comprised of six former Champlain Valley Union High School student. See story on page 10.
Report: Shelburne forests at tipping point LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
On Feb. 8, Arrowwood Environmental presented Shelburne’s planning and natural resources and conservation committees an analysis of forested wildlife habitats in town as a guide to ranking critical conservation projects as the staff begins to overhaul the town’s zoning bylaws. The town’s natural resources and conservation committee asked the town to undertake the inventory after learning about work the firm had done for neighboring towns and appealed to the planning commission to support a report that could “help us to be able to identify wildlife corridors and other kinds of resources,” committee chair Gail Albert said.
“Shelburne’s land is somewhat fragmented because of development that’s already occurred,” she said. “In order for animals to be able to reach other parts of their habitat, they need to have corridors that allow them to freely nest or feed and get back to their home. Our goal was to be able to identify those places and there are many of them here in Shelburne.” Arrowwood Environmental conducted a “habitat block” assessment that was consistent with directives laid out in Vermont’s Act 171, which was passed in 2017, that directs municipalities to consider forest and habitat blocks in the municipal planning process. According to the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, municipalities seeking to have town plans approved by their regional planning commission
must include a future land use map and language that identifies state, regional or locally significant forest blocks and habitat connectors. Albert explained that the maps given in the Arrowwood report will help the development review board and planning commission better identify critical connective links to reduce forest fragmentation and support essential ecological functions. Habitat blocks are areas large enough to provide habitat, either permanently or seasonally, for wider ranging species of wildlife typically found in Shelburne such as bobcat, red and gray fox, whitetailed deer, river otter and fishers. These species of wildlife require larger areas and See ZONING on page 16