Winooski extends the Armory land deal and hears that 62% of households rent
The falls on the Winooski River in Winooski, where the city is still working to redevelop the former Armory lot for housing. Photo: Ken Gallager, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Winooski’s City Council on Nov. 2 heard both a new look at who needs housing in the city and a progress report on the long-planned redevelopment of the former Armory lot, including a later deadline to buy the land.
Michael Moser of the University of Vermont’s Center for Rural Studies told the council that 62 percent of Winooski households rent, more than twice the statewide rate, and that “Winooski is like no place in Vermont,” according to draft minutes of the meeting. The Equitable Housing Needs Assessment, funded by a late-2024 Municipal Planning Grant, has included a literature review, a resource guide, community engagement and a draft final report, he said. Staff had already completed 10 interviews with advisory-committee members and seven focus groups with 54 residents, a Nov. 2 housing memorandum from Jazmine Hurley and colleagues said. The memo expected the final report by the end of November.
Hurley, the housing initiative director, also updated the council on the Armory project and the Housing Trust Fund, the minutes state. The memo says Champlain Housing Trust’s revised design was approved by the Development Review Board in April, after an earlier plan was denied; that phase II environmental testing finished in late 2025 and a corrective-action soil plan has been finalized; and that the city and the National Guard have signed an addendum extending the purchase-and-sale acquisition date to March 31, 2027. An option agreement with Champlain Housing Trust has also been extended. Utility questions are still being worked out among Public Works, code enforcement, the city manager and the housing trust, the memo said.
On a smaller scale, the same update said two Housing Trust Fund down-payment or interest-rate closings have been completed through a new partnership with EastRise Credit Union, with a third in progress, for a spend-down of $20,000, described as the most the fund has ever put to use. Staff also reported that one of two recently built affordable homes for sale in the city has been sold to an eligible buyer, the first time city employees ran that eligibility review in-house, and that the accompanying market-rate unit has also sold.
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