Applicants are being sought for program to help low- and moderate-income Central Vermonters add accessory dwelling units to their home sites
Accessory dwelling units or ADUs – a smaller dwelling located on the same lot as a single-family home – can help communities by creating more housing while preserving open space, and they can offer homeowners benefits like rental income and a neighbor to lend a hand. As of 2023, every homeowner in Vermont is eligible to construct ADU on their property. However, homeowners can be daunted by the questions and costs associated with ADUs – and communities are sometimes unaware of the new law.
To address these barriers, participants are being sought for a pilot program this summer intended to support low- and moderate-income homeowners in becoming ADU creators. The program is being offered by the White River Valley Consortium, a loosely
Each of these seven homes is an example of an accessory dwelling unit or ADU
affiliated network of organizations and residents working to support 14 towns in the White River Valley in increasing the availability of housing that is affordable for early-career young adults and beginning entrepreneurs. The Consortium Program Manager, Sarah Danly, is hosted by Vital Communities.
The pilot phase of the program is open to low- and moderate-income homeowners in Randolph, Brookfield, Braintree, Rochester, Hancock, and Granville. The Consortium hopes to expand the list of towns in the future.
Applications are now open. The first 10 interested homeowners who meet geographic and income eligibility criteria will have their potential project evaluated by the project’s team experts based on the project’s location and how it fits with applicable zoning, floodplain regulations, sewer and septic service, and more. The program is free for participants.
Five of those homeowners – selected to represent a diversity of housing types and locations, such as rural versus downtown – will be offered more in-depth assistance via an in-person site visit by members of the Consortium as well as one or two professionals with expertise related to the specific questions that came up in each site’s virtual evaluation. The visiting team would ask questions and provide feedback during the visit as well as compile a list of recommended next steps for the homeowner. These site visits are expected to occur in June but exact timing is dependent on the first stage of digital evaluation.
The five site visits could include staff from that particular municipality, such as zoning or floodplain administrator; architects, designers, or builders; landlords or tenant-landlord liaisons/service providers to help answer questions about what it will be like to have a tenant on one’s property: and septic designers or other contractors whose specific technical expertise may be helpful based on the preliminary virtual evaluation.
In addition to helping those 10 homeowners develop ADUs, the project plans to write up the five featured projects as models for other people interested in building an ADU under similar site conditions.