Former chair of the West Windsor Planning Commission, Alan Keiller, and planning commission member and Homes Study project manager, Jill Appel, are asking the West Windsor Selectboard to help enact a Housing Commission dedicated to finding grants and prioritizing parcels in order to achieve their mission of creating 70 viable housing units by 2030.
Keiller and Appel spoke to the Standard about the initiative, how they are tackling the housing issue, and what they hope to accomplish in the coming years.
“As of today, our affordable home study has largely been completed,” Appel said. “We have a little bit of engineering consulting that we’d like to do on a couple of the sites, but presently we have narrowed our search from twenty-one potential parcels down to four viable parcels, down to two that we can actually build on in 2026 and 2027.”
At the beginning of last year, Keiller and Appel enlisted the help of Brian Lane-Karnas, Senior Civil Engineer at DeWolfe Engineering in Montpelier, and Matt Giffin with Banwell Architects in Lebanon, to assess properties and help determine if they were viable build sites. Out of the 21 potential parcels, the team deemed four to be adequate properties that could support infrastructure, water, and sewage disposal. “We now understand there are only two that, in actuality, can be built into homes in a timely manner,” Keiller explained. “There is one parcel in particular we hope to break ground on in 2026. It is at the corner of Ski Tow Road and Route 44 at the lower base of the mountain.”
“We believe that this area could support our vision of building six duplexes, which would be comprised of twelve homes. The land is readily available, and it is in an area that already has access to sewer and water, and is situated in a higher-density zone, which would allow us to build comfortably,” Appel added.
Appel and Keiller are now petitioning the West Windsor Selectboard to establish a Housing Commission and trust. “We need someone in charge of tackling all the minute aspects that come with seeking to build on a property, or to convert an existing accessory dwelling into a viable home,” Appel said. As such, the pair seeks to establish a Housing Commission comprising seven to nine members. “To turn this ideal mountain parcel into the duplexes we envision,” Appel went on to say, “we need an appraisal, a survey, and then a purchase contract. We’d need to negotiate and raise the funds — partly from the town, but also, we would need the financial support of members of our community who would be willing to donate to our first affordable homes initiative.”
West Windsor residents who are interested in applying for a seat on the Housing Commission can reach out to Jill Appel directly at jill.appel@comcast.net. Those interested in Appel and Keiller’s initiative to create more affordable housing units in West Windsor can attend the next selectboard meeting on Jan. 12 at 6:30 p.m., where the issue will be discussed publicly.
For more on this, please see our Dec. 31 edition of the Vermont Standard.
