UPDATE: Public info. meeting Oct. 18 ahead of 51 S. Main vote
October 17, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti Editor’s note: This post was updated to add drawings and other documents with new background information presented to the EFUD Board of Commissioners on Oct. 12.
A preliminary street elevation sketch submitted by Downstreet Housing & Community Development shows a rendering of its proposed affordable housing development (center).
Another preliminary street view sketch submitted by Downstreet.
The commissioners of the Edward Farrar Utility District will hold an informational meeting this Tuesday, Oct. 18, to present new background materials ahead of next week’s vote on whether to sell the property at 51 South Main Street to Downstreet Housing & Community Development.
Downstreet, which owns and manages three affordable housing developments in Waterbury, is interesting in building about 24 affordable apartments on the site of the former Waterbury municipal offices.
The informational meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at St. Leo’s Hall at 109 S. Main St. (the parish hall behind St. Andrew’s Catholic Church).
The meeting will address questions and concerns raised regarding the proposed affordable housing project for the lot owned by the utility district at 51 S. Main Street. The district is asking its voters to decide whether to sell the property at a special in-person meeting and vote on Oct. 24 to be held at the Main Street fire station starting at 6:30 p.m.
On Tuesday, Oct. 18, the commissioners will review information to date on the history of the property, land-use needs identified in the Waterbury Town Plan, current zoning regulations, housing needs in Waterbury, according to board Chair P. Howard “Skip” Flanders. In addition, new details shared with the EFUD board last week will be presented including an update on a report by the firm Stantec on downtown parking capacity, Flanders said.
Representatives from Downstreet will attend to review the proposed project with new preliminary drawings and more details about income requirements for potential tenants. Downstreet has also agreed to address suggestions that the project include ground-floor commercial or retail space.
The new information was shared with the EFUD board on Oct. 12 and will be added to background materials available online before the vote, Flanders said. The new information from Downstreet is included below in a series of images. Click on them to enlarge them.
The Tuesday informational meeting will also cover how to determine eligibility to vote on Oct. 24.
The Oct. 18 informational meeting is open to all town residents while only EFUD residents may vote on the property sale next week.
October 2, 2022 | ORIGINAL POST
Signs for and against the sale of 51 S. Main Street to Downstreet Housing & Community Development are staked out near the roundabout on North Main. Courtesy photo
Ahead of the Oct. 24 vote on the proposed sale of 51 South Main Street, officials with the Edward Farrar Utility District are looking to schedule more opportunities to gather and share information with the public.
The Board of Commissioners for the district – referred to as EFUD – have a special short meeting scheduled for Monday at 5:30 p.m. to discuss adding more about the proposal to their agenda for their regular meeting next week. The board typically meets on the second Wednesday of the month.
The commissioners on Monday will discuss putting on the Oct. 12 agenda an opportunity to receive more information regarding the proposed sale of 51 S. Main to the nonprofit Downstreet Housing and Community Development organization based in Barre. The board also will consider whether to formally notify and invite adjacent property owners to next week’s meeting so they might attend if they are interested, explained Board Chair P. Howard “Skip” Flanders.
“I would like to send a letter on behalf of the commissioners to the adjacent landowners inviting them to the meeting to share this with them as the most affected people of the project,” Flanders said. “Everyone else is welcome to attend and ask questions, they are not excluded. Following this information we would welcome hearing any concerns they have.”
Also on Monday, the commissioners will consider scheduling a separate informational meeting – possibly Oct. 18 to be held at St. Leo’s Hall (behind St. Andrew’s Catholic Church) – for more discussion before the vote, Flanders said. “I want to be able to let people know about this meeting now rather than waiting until the 12th to set the date. This will allow us to present the information a few days ahead of the vote for people to consider,” he added.
Background
Formed in 2018 after the Waterbury Village government was dissolved, the utility district’s main function is to oversee operations of the municipal water and wastewater departments. The district also inherited some village government functions and properties including 51 S. Main, the longtime site of the Waterbury town and village offices and the former police department. The building was torn down in 2019 after district officials decided not to renovate it following extensive damage from flooding during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. The town has since built new offices and 51 S. Main has been used for public parking.
The utility district received an insurance settlement from the damaged property and over the past decade, it has considered several proposals for development on the site, none of which have gained enough support from the district’s commissioners or voters to move forward.
Last fall, EFUD commissioners asked Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk to contact Downstreet about the possibility of the property being the site for an affordable housing development Downstreet owns and runs three housing developments in Waterbury – the South Main Apartments near the State Office Complex, the Stimson and Graves Apartments on Stowe Street, and the Green Mountain Seminary Apartments in Waterbury Center.
Downstreet’s proposal
Downstreet has expressed interest and has proposed building a three-story apartment complex on the .8-acre site with about 24 units.
The EFUD board has agreed to offer the property for sale to Downstreet for $138,000, its current appraised value. Although the five-member board could approve the sale, it has agreed to let the district’s voters have the final say. After a public information meeting about the proposal on Aug. 31, the commissioners set Oct. 24 as the date for a special district meeting for that decision.
At and since the Aug. 31 meeting, several concerns and questions were raised and work has been underway since to address those issues, Flanders said. That’s one reason to discuss the matter further at the board’s Oct. 12 meeting. Flanders said he anticipates that information will be prepared by then to address four key areas:
Elevation views from the street perspective of the proposed building
An explanation of the income requirements and rents for potential tenants of the new housing units
An update of a downtown parking study to address the loss of 51 S. Main as a public parking lot
Input from Downstreet regarding whether the project might include retail/commercial space on the street level.
The Oct. 24 special meeting and vote
The Oct. 24 meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the Main Street fire station. The vote will happen in person with just those in attendance participating. Those who are registered to vote and who live in the EFUD district may vote.
The district is essentially the same area that comprised Waterbury Village before 2018 and it has about 1,500 registered voters. Town Clerk Karen Petrovic explained that being a customer of the water or wastewater departments does not make someone an EFUD member. And if an owner of a property in the EFUD district does not actually live there, they are not a member either.
Anyone unsure should rely on their address for their voter registration, and they can check with Petrovic.
The Waterbury municipal website, however, does not have a map to show the district boundaries. That’s one reason a group of supporters of the sale of the property to Downstreet has created a website to collect information about the issue and the upcoming vote – including a map.
Emily Heymann worked on creating the website yesfor51main.info. She said she’s one of about a dozen residents in the district who brainstormed the idea, gathered information for it, and have made some of the “Vote Yes” signs appearing in the village recently.
“We support this and we were thinking of how we can help get the word out,” Heymann said. “We definitely needed a map.”
The group also is thinking ahead should there be a second vote if some residents are dissatisfied with the results on Oct. 24 and petition for a reconsideration or rescission vote, she said. The website can be a way to connect people and share information, she added.
Meanwhile, other signs in the downtown advocate a “Vote No” message from opponents of the sale to Downstreet for a variety of reasons. One opponent is a village resident who would like the opportunity to purchase the property and build a smaller apartment building on it. Others would like to see Downstreet build a mixed-use structure with housing and ground-floor commercial space, while others are not pleased with the size of the proposed building.
EFUD in the spotlight
With three weeks to go, the level of public discussion and debate far exceeds any attention EFUD elections have had since the district was formed. Even with the vote happening at an in-person meeting, participation could easily surpass the turnout for EFUD annual meeting votes held in early May each year since 2019. This year, 44 people participated in the May 11 election. That was far better than the turnout of just 21 and 17 voters in 2021 and 2020 respectively.
Town election records show that village annual meeting and election participation prior to EFUD’s formation was low but still higher than the utility district has had in recent years. Records on the town website going back a decade show 2011 turnout at a high of 326, dropping to 163 in 2012. By 2015 it fell to 49 and it was just 54 in 2018, the final year the village was in existence.