Helen Riehle: Intentional planning and investment drives South Burlington’s housing strategy

This commentary is by Helen Riehle, former South Burlington City Council member and chair.

The availability, affordability, and yes, safety, of housing will make or break a community, its economic vitality and its social vibrancy. If there is one thing that unites us, it’s that we all recognize the affordable housing crisis in Chittenden County and in Vermont. We all recognize that people need housing that matches their individual and family circumstances, and that quality homes must be accessible and available. It’s a challenge that has been a long-standing issue in Vermont, and has only intensified in recent years.

We’ve made great strides in South Burlington. It would be easier if we could change one law or one sector to fix our housing crisis in Vermont, but the reality is that it’s an incredibly complex, multi-faceted issue that takes every level of government and every sector of our economy pulling together to solve. Addressing our significant growth potential and an evolution of our city identity, South Burlington has been working diligently to pinpoint these matters and put in place a long-term vision and strategic plan for the vibrancy, diversity and accessibility of the city.

Key to this vision is ensuring the availability of a diverse stock of housing options for the range of lifestyles and life stages reflected across South Burlington. This allows residents to remain in South Burlington as they move through life and provides the ability for the next generation to remain here. By safeguarding the community vibrancy of the city, South Burlington reinforces its reputation as a community with a place for everyone, attracting young people, families, multi-generational households, older Vermonters and more.

South Burlington’s housing vision will take significant investment from the state, from local residents and from the private sector, and will take many years to achieve. But the intentional planning the city has undergone for years has laid the foundation for a successful future. In 2014, South Burlington established the South Burlington Housing Trust Fund to strategically invest in the development of new affordable housing, preserve existing affordable-housing and support other aspects of affordable housing development. More recently, the city used $1 million of its federal Covid relief funds in support of more affordable housing.

As the city planned for its new city center, among the first buildings to go up between 2018 and 2020 were the 60 permanently-affordable units in the Garden Street Apartments, developed in partnership with Champlain Housing Trust, and 39 senior living apartments operated by Cathedral Square. Working in partnership with these nonprofit organizations, as well as with private developers, enabled South Burlington to prioritize the goal of forever affordable housing and create the momentum needed for the City Center. It’s a proven way to couple good planning and strong community involvement as we work together to create housing for people of all life stages and all incomes.

While we celebrate this achievement, we continue to look to the future. Our strategic priorities include increasing the number of affordable housing units by 1,000 homes by 2035 and cutting in half the percentage of households who spend more than 50% of their income on housing costs. Locking in the affordability of our community for its residents, now and in the future, remains crucial to our shared success in accomplishing these goals in the coming decade.

It’s precisely this cornerstone value that led us to partner with Champlain Housing Trust and Cathedral Square on the initial City Center development. Our shared investment in those apartments will last as we seek to both retain the affordable homes we have and increase their number in the coming years. It took local, state and federal partnership to accomplish our initial goal, but working together we hit our first milestone and will continue to make progress on our shared vision into the future.

As I reflect on my time on the South Burlington City Council and look back on the housing landscape in the city, I am proud of our shared work to integrate affordability and accessibility as key tenets of our housing strategy at a time when South Burlington (and Vermont as a whole) is facing an unprecedented housing shortage with rippling impacts across every sector of the economy and every facet of our community.

We know the work is not done, but this successful model perhaps can act as a road map for other communities at their scale and with their needs in mind. Critical to our future success and those of other communities will be ongoing state support and enabling housing development where it’s most suited.

South Burlington’s goals aim high, but I have no doubt we will accomplish them if we continue bridging public and private investment, through a strong plan for our shared future, and with responsive community engagement. We’ve accomplished a lot together, and I leave the City Council knowing we’ve laid the groundwork for success and share the vision of a bright future for our city.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Helen Riehle: Intentional planning and investment drives South Burlington’s housing strategy .