MARC is excited to showcase its Housing Suitability Study! 

In 2023, MARC hired the SE Group to develop a mapping tool that would identify sites well suited for potential housing development and redevelopment. The map serves two primary purposes. First, to help developers identify good sites for new housing projects. Second, to help town boards and committees begin to identify specific parcels for housing projects. The result is a shaded heat map that identifies areas that might have parcels appropriate for housing development.  

For details about the project, see the Story Map or to use the tool, go to the Interactive Map. 

Home Creators Expo  

June 1st, 2024  

10:00am – 3:00pm 

The Greater Upper Valley is experiencing a housing crisis. Learn how to be part of the solution by attending the Home Creators Expo. 

If you are a builder, designer, architect, planner or homeowner this event might be for you. If you have thought about adding living space to your home, helping homeowners rethink their property, or want to learn more about home creation, please join us at the second annual Home Creators Expo at the Hartford Area Career and Technology Center (HACTC). This event builds off of last year’s inaugural Expo that brought together nearly 150 attendees to learn about home creation and beyond. This year’s goal is to continue to encourage a new community of folks that might have the desire to turn existing space into additional dwelling units.  

For more information on the EXPO contact Christine Eggleton

The VT Development of Housing & Community Development created a "Design & Do" Toolkit full of tips and resources for small-scale home builders, community leaders, planners, and investors. Visit the website Here to download The Homes for All Toolkit for free and sign up for an informational webinar on April 10, 2024.  

For more information contact Christine Eggleton

If you, or someone you know, are unable to shop or cook, friendly volunteers bring nutritious food and social connection to your home. Senior Solutions staffers can help sign you up for meal deliveries in your area. Meals are also available at various ‘drive through’ sites throughout Windsor and Windham Counties.

Get started here or call the Helpline at 802-885-2669 or 866-673-8376 (toll-free).                

Brownfields Program Offers Clean Up Funding

MARC is offering low interest loans for cleanup of brownfields sites to bring previously contaminated properties back into productive use to facilitate housing and commercial redevelopment.

Previous industrial and commercial uses of otherwise attractive properties may warrant having a Phase 1 assessment performed of the site prior to purchasing the property. The Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment will provide the prospective purchaser with a historic overview of the property and a better understanding of the environmental conditions at the site and will reduce the potential liability of the purchaser should contaminants be found on the property.

MARC’s Brownfield Program is supported by funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development.

We offer funding and technical assistance to both non-profits and for-profit organizations to support needed assessment to limit buyer’s liability, determine extent of contamination, and to develop corrective action plans and estimated costs for cleaning up the site in collaboration with redevelopment plans. For-profit entities can receive low interest loans to implement corrective action plans.

For more information on Brownfields and our program, please contact either Tom Kennedy or Cindy Ingersoll. More information can be found on our website

Active Brownfield Projects in the Region

Windsor

MARC will be providing funding for the cleanup of a parcel on Main Street to remove contaminated soils. The cleanup is on track to begin this month with construction commencing immediately after the cleanup. The site will be used to create 26 units of housing.

MARC is funding an assessment and cleanup project that is located on the east of the railroad tracks behind the Windsor Station restaurant. A Corrective Action Plan (CAP) is being developed and should be completed in late spring. The developer hopes to begin construction of a recreational facility that includes a skateboard park, pump track and other recreational amenities in the early summer.

Springfield

MARC's Brownfields Program is funding two significant projects in Springfield. The historic Parks and Woolson property and the Park Street School/Black River Innovation Campus.  

For the recently purchased Parks and Woolson property, MARC is providing funding to perform a Phase 1 and Phase 2 assessments. The Phase 1 assessment has been completed, and a Phase 2 assessment is underway which includes soil and gas vapor sampling, testing surfaces for contaminants and sampling of drums found in the building. 

The Park Street School project has completed all the necessary assessment work and cleanup planning and has begun implementation of the Corrective Action Plan. MARC is focusing its funding on assisting with the demolition of the former bus barn and the tanks associated with the building, removal of contaminated soils in the parking area near the school and asbestos abatement inside the school.

Save the date!  In partnership with Vermont Agency of Transportation, and along with a number of other participating organizations and sponsors, the Northeastern Vermont Development Association will host the statewide Vermont Walk/Bike Summit in St Johnsbury on June 20, 2024.  The keynote speaker will be Mirna Valerio.  For more information, see the event website. 

Better Places Grants  

If your town is thinking of more parks and green spaces, a vibrant main street, public art, and community gardens, Better Places grants can help. Projects are accepted on a rolling basis.

Visit the website Better Places for more information. 

VT Community Tree Planting Program Now Open!

The Vermont Community Tree Planting Program is now accepting applications for proposals to plant trees in areas across the state that will enhance tree canopy, improve water quality, boost public health, and increase equitable access to the many benefits of trees.

Full details, including grant amounts, timelines, and application guidance are available on the program website.

Note that there will be two rounds of grants and that May 17^th, 2024 is the first application deadline, but there will be a second round later this year. Any eligible applicant (municipalities, schools, and nonprofits) can apply for either or both rounds, but funds will be prioritized for first-time funding recipients. If interested in applying, or for any questions, please contact: Allison.

VTrans Invites Municipalities to Participate in Grants-in-Aid Program

VTrans invites municipalities to participate in the Municipal Roads Grants-in-Aid Program, which provides funding for municipalities to implement best management practices in accordance with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation Municipal Roads General Permit (MRGP). Grants-in-Aid awards will be made available through VTrans and will total approximately $3M in this grant cycle. 

Letters of Intent are due by May 10, 2024. 

Creation Grants

The VT Arts Council is accepting applications for its annual Creation Grant, which supports artists or artist groups in creating new work. Funds may be used to compensate artists for time spent creating new work, to purchase materials, or to rent equipment or space for the process.

For more information click here. The application deadline is April 9, 2024.  

Arts & Community Spaces Flood Recovery & Resilience Grants

The VT Community Foundation's Arts & Community Spaces "Coming Together After the Floods" grant program is now open. Applications will be accepted until April 16, 2024. VCF is inviting proposals for collaborative projects, from the ordinary to the extraordinary, in flood-affected communities that advance shared recovery through the arts, humanities, or hands-on projects that reactivate community spaces. Projects from nonprofit organizations, municipalities or schools are eligible.

Visit the VCF website here.

Rural Fire Protection Grant Program  

Priority projects include the installation of new dry hydrants and other types of rural water supplies.  Other eligible projects may include repair/upgrade, replacement, or relocation of existing rural water supplies (whether previously grant funded or not), and drafting site development (access, stepping stones for portables, etc.). Visit vacd.org/programs/rural-fire-protection to download the application packet.  

Substantial FEMA funding is available in the State of Vermont to reduce flood risk. In addition to buyouts of flood-prone properties, Vermont Emergency Management is promoting options for maintaining our available housing and tax base: structural elevations and mitigation reconstruction.

To express interest in elevation or mitigation reconstruction please reach out directly to Allison Hopkins.

The priority deadline to express interest is Friday, March 29, 2024, and final deadline is Friday June 21, 2024. 

WHAT:  

An in-person event for governmental units of all sizes and associated professionals to explore Vermont specific best practices in capital planning. 

WHEN: 

Thursday, April 11th from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm

WHERE: 

Alumni Hall 

20 Auditorium Hill 

Barre, VT 

Click here to register 

If you’d like to see how many weatherization projects have been completed in your town, how many properties have installed cold-climate heat pumps or how many residents have purchased electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, check out the Energy Action Network’s Vermont Energy Dashboard newly released in February, with data through December 2022. 

You can also find the Statewide GHG Emissions Dashboard on EAN’s website. This dashboard, which was published in September 2023, reflects statewide emissions data from the thermal, transportation and electricity sectors gathered by the VT Agency of Natural Resources between 1990 and 2020.  

Both dashboards will be updated annually with the most recently available information.  

So far, approximately 200 municipal buildings have been assessed for energy efficiency statewide through the MERP program and municipal officials are slowly starting to receive their assessment reports. 

In MARC’s region, applications were submitted to have 33 buildings assessed, and 28 of those applications were approved. Additional applications may be approved if funding allows. Fifteen buildings in five MARC towns have been assessed so far and reports for seven of those buildings have been completed. If you haven’t seen a report yet, don’t despair. Additional reports are expected over the next few weeks and the implementation grant applications are not available yet.

The deadline for implementation grant applications will not be until sometime this fall. 

Save-the-Date! June 5-6 for the Downtown Conference and Creative Sector Convening in Bellows Falls! Wednesday, June 5 is the Downtown and Historic Preservation Conference and on Thursday, June 6 the Vermont Creative Network is hosting the 2024 Creative Sector Convening!  Be inspired, make connections, and learn new skills to invigorate Vermont communities through creativity.

Full details and registration coming soon! 

www. marcvt.org

We are still in the process of rebuilding the MARC website, www.marvt.org, and adding content back to the site. We feel it is beginning to come together nicely, though.  

Your feedback and comments on anything that is missing, or ways to make it more user friendly, will be helpful to us as we work to get the site back up andfully running.  Please send them to Lisa C, Logan N or Malia C.  

Thank you, and we hope you have a great and Spring Season!