Winston Prouty center housing project hearing begins
By Chris Mays, Brattleboro Reformer, Feb 21, 2025
BRATTLEBORO — Before a decision can be issued on the first phase of an ambitious housing project at the Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development, more information is requested from the Development Review Board.
Stephen Hayes, town planning technician, said the DRB voted unanimously 6-0 to continue the hearing in order to be “confident that they have all the information to make a determination.” He expects the project, which calls for 28 units in a three-story modular building, is likely to be included on the board’s March meeting agenda.
Hayes said the DRB wants “explicit confirmation from the fire department that the driveway is fully accessible for a firetruck,” a completed site plan with more details on lighting, a draft of a shared parking agreement and additional testimony from the applicant that there are “no other alignments” to situate the new development.
Many issues came up during Michael Averill’s approximately hour-long testimony. He’s a neighbor and DRB vice chairman, so he had to recuse himself.
“I’m sure I will be perceived as a grumpy, old, NIMBY guy that just doesn’t want change,” he said, referring to a phrase for Not In My Backyard. “And well, you know, a lot of that’s true.”
Plans for putting housing on the property is “a good idea” but the proposal before the board isn’t, Averill said. He urged the board to deny the application and send the project “back to the drawing board.”
Chloe Learey, executive director of the Prouty center, said her group purchased the former Austine School for the Deaf campus in 2016, and views itself as “stewards of a community asset.”
“This partially came out of a planning process we did about five years ago,” she said. “We had a 25-member community task force help us look at different aspects of the campus, how to make it sustainable, what was important about it in terms of how it is in the community and what benefits it might serve.”
With the center connected to town infrastructure and near services, new housing units were explored, given the housing crisis locally and throughout Vermont.
“We’ve been doing that work for the past few years,” Learey said, noting a housing needs assessment in town identified the need for 500 units two years ago. “Phase One is the 28 units that we’re proposing on the Wheeler House lot, so the green house you can see off of Maple Street. And we’ve been working really hard to figure out how to make it possible because we know our community really, really, really needs housing.”
Learey said the proposed housing is “for everybody,” meaning that units will be available to people of different incomes. A system will be set up to help ensure that happens.
Ultimately, the hope is to get as many as 300 units on the campus. The Village at Winston Prouty is the name of the project.
Mark Westa, project manager and landscape architect, said the units are proposed to be constructed on 1.69 acres with 22 new parking spaces. The current plan is to have 10 studio apartments, 10 one-bedroom apartments, four two-bedroom apartments and four three-bedroom apartments.
“Another important part of our idea is that we have transit on campus,” Westa said. “We are trying to be a bike friendly place. We can walk to many of the places nearby, the hospital is not that far, some of the stores. As the campus grows, we might look into things like car sharing and bike sharing.”
Westa said the site was chosen primarily due to its proximity to town utilities and the town road.
“We’re really trying to create a place that fits the neighborhood scale and at the same time works with the Winston Prouty campus feel,” he said.
Westa said the intention is to contain all phases of the project to the campus and not develop the wooded back acres. Efforts are underway to get a state stormwater permit and a jurisdictional opinion on whether an Act 250 permit is needed from the state.
Averill described being worried about the “catastrophic impact” the project would have on his life, the local environment and neighborhood. He lives directly across the street.
“The idea of creating a large residential community on Winston Prouty has strong backing by the planning board, planning department, and both town and state governments approve of the goal of increasing Brattleboro’s housing,” he said. “However, this project, as proposed, is an ill conceived and inappropriate plan. … This is a high profile project. Let’s be really careful to get this phase right.”
Averill claimed the notice of the meeting was not properly posted on the property and questioned whether communications about plantings ran “afoul of the open meeting law for the DRB.” Heights of nearby buildings would make the proposed development of out character for the neighborhood, he said.
“I really feel it’s important to take a look at this project as a whole rather than just than a single phase …,” he said.
Averill also brought up issues related to parking, stormwater, lighting, traffic, setbacks and wetlands. Mona Williams, another neighbor on Maple Street, suggested the proposal could be downsized.
Learey told the Reformer her group feels like the hearing “went well, and we expected it would be continued in some form since we are meeting with the fire department next week.”