East Valley Housing Approved,
But All Lines Must BeBuried
By M. D. Drysdale

Randolph’s Development Review Board gave its approval last week for a zoning permit for a 24-lot housing subdivision in East Randolph.

The new homes would be part of a "planned unit development" that allows homes to be clustered on the 20-acre property, leaving approximately half of the land open as common land and recreation.

Dick Dybvig of Tunbridge, who has created housing developments in Chelsea and Williamstown, requested the zoning permit. He told the DRB he can bring in the 24 units, at about 1500 square feet each, for a retail price of about $150,000, which in the current market qualifies as very affordable housing.

Dybvig said last week he was pleased with most aspects of the zoning permit. However, he was disappointed that the DRB ruled that all service wiring—electric, cable and telephone—must be buried underground.

That requirement will add $12.000 to $15,000 to the price of every house, he said. He has decided to appeal the ruling to the Vermont Environmental Court.

Overhead lines would cost $8500, the developer said, while burying all the lines would, he guessed, cost $250,000.

"That’s not something I can just eat and not pass on," he noted. The ruling, he argued, was "antithetical to the whole affordable concept."

The site in question is rolling parcel off Route 14 on the southern outskirts of East Randolph village, bordering the Second Branch. The 24 homes would be built along a single street parallel to the river, but on a higher level, while a meadow along the river itself would be kept as open land, and would be protected by covenants, according to Dybvig.

A previous plan by a different developer for housing on that site had been approved earlier, but nothing came of it.

Other Permits

Dybvig will still have to get a detailed site plan approval from the DRB and an Act 250 permit, which is handled both by the DRB and by the District 3 Environmental Commission.

A hearing May 29 was attended by Dybvig and several neighbors, who largely opposed the plan, saying it would change the character of the neighborhood. The DRB decision released last week, however, found that the proposal met all the zoning criteria for a PUD, and the board took pains to compliment Dybvig’s proposal.

The proposed project, the board said, "effectively uses the land by clustering development and utilities and maintaining over 50% of the total lot as open space."

The project is also "innovative in that it creates a clear, organized neighborhood on a common street that all homes front on and relate to visually and socially," the decision said.

The DRB imposes nine conditions, most or all of which were either proposed by the developer or accepted by him. They include, for instance, that no building may be done on the lower plateau near the river and that covenants should be part of the deeds, keeping the open space and recreation space as in tended.

It is also a requirement of the DRB that "such lands should never be posted."