Shelburne committee reviews draft Housing Trust Fund ordinance, proposes nonprofit administration and local incentives

Shelburne’s Housing Committee on July 6 reviewed a first draft ordinance to create a town Housing Trust Fund and discussed how the fund might be administered and seeded.

Town Planner Aaron DeNamur said he has prepared an initial ordinance draft that would need Select Board review and a subsequent vote. He told the committee that the town envisions Aaron DeNamur and Town Manager Matt Lawless serving as co-managers of the proposed fund and that the draft borrows elements from other Chittenden County examples, including Burlington and Winooski.

Committee members considered three concrete ways to operationalize the fund: contracting with a nonprofit to administer down-payment assistance for eligible Shelburne residents; creating incentive payments to encourage people to live and work in town to help address local workforce shortages; and soliciting donations from the Select Board and town residents to build initial capital for the fund. The committee did not adopt formal eligibility criteria or a final funding source during the meeting.

The committee asked staff to share the ordinance draft with members for comment and to forward it to the Select Board for formal consideration. No final vote on the ordinance took place at the July 6 meeting.

The committee also discussed outreach and technical assistance: Cymone Bedford of the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission introduced herself and described CCRPC’s interest in partnering with towns on housing tools such as local trust funds. Staff and committee members noted possible regional partners and future educational events to help the public understand the proposed fund.

Next steps: staff will circulate the draft ordinance to the committee, and the committee expects the Select Board will receive the ordinance for review and any future vote.