MONTPELIER — City officials and representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were scheduled to meet Monday to discuss the logistics of setting up three dozen FEMA trailers on a sliver of the city-owned land located at the end of Country Club Road.
City councilors are expected to weigh in Wednesday when they will likely be asked to authorize City Manager Bill Fraser to negotiate the lease agreement FEMA needs to create temporary housing for central Vermonters displaced by catastrophic flooding in July.
Unless something went sideways during Monday’s meeting with FEMA officials, that is the staff recommendation councilors will consider when they turn their attention back to the Country Club Road for the first time since the flood.
The council’s conversation is much bigger than FEMA’s interest in locating 36 trailers on a portion of the 133-acre property the city acquired for $3 million in 2021. However, the FEMA proposal and how to handle a pair of unsolicited proposals to lease the former Elks’ lodge, which was part of the two-year-old sale, will require some direction from the council.
Both proposals contemplate relatively short-term use of property the city hopes will eventually accommodate a mix of housing, recreational opportunities and open space that emerged as priorities during a months-long master planning process.
FEMA’s proposal wouldn’t prevent the city from continuing to head down that path, while creating temporary housing for those whose homes were significantly damaged by the flood. It would require a commitment of up to two years during which roughly seven acres of land located nearest the former Elks lodge would be occupied by FEMA trailers.
With winter approaching, and some work to be done, timing is an issue. Estimates suggest infrastructure improvements — gravel roads and water and sewer line extensions — could take 60 to 90 days to complete.
Based on those estimates, the council’s blessing and a hastily negotiated lease agreement, the trailers could be ready for occupancy some time between mid-November and mid-December.
FEMA has been looking for suitable sites to group trailers for temporary housing in the aftermath of the flood and the Country Club Road property checks a lot of boxes. It is relatively flat, isn’t in the floodplain and, perhaps most importantly, has reasonably easy access to both water and sewer. The former Elks’ lodge is served by both municipal utilities.
While councilors are expected to be asked to green-light negotiations with FEMA involving use of some of the Country Club Road tract, they will also decide what to do with a pair of unsolicited offers to lease the building.
The council could choose between those proposals, opt to formally solicit alternatives from others who might be interested, or wait for a soon-to-be-completed study that will assess indoor and outdoor recreational opportunities at the Country Club Road site.
The staff recommendation is to wait for the study, though none of the options would affect the city’s ongoing conversations with Good Samaritan Haven, which has proposed using a portion of the currently vacant portion of the building as an emergency homeless shelter this winter.
Part of the building is leased by a local child care center, though councilors have been told a planned relocation is in the works.
Councilors are being asked to finalize areas designated for housing, recreation and open space on the property, while specifying the number of housing units they would like to see eventually developed on the site.
Though some adjustments may be necessary as the project evolves, clarity with respect to the council’s conceptual expectations will provide a framework to pursue future development.
An in-depth discussion of the proposed recreation area will await the completion of the pending study. However, councilors will be asked Wednesday night to give some thought to what uses should and shouldn’t be allowed on the city-owned property. Those thoughts will be incorporated in a policy that will be drafted and brought back for their review and approval at a future meeting.
