Vermont Housing & Conservation Board - Vermont Legislature

January 31, 2013A. Blake Gardner photos The Brattleboro Food Co-op, the Windham& Windsor Housing Trust and Housing Vermontteamed up to construct an award-winning,energy effiicient building for the co-op with 24apartments on the upper floors.s The Kempton Farm in Peacham, conservedby the Vermont Land Trust in 1990 with VHCBfunding. Today, the next generation of Kemptonsis shipping milk to Cabot for their award-winningcloth bound cheddar that is aged at the Cellarsat Jasper Hill in Greensboro.sGovernor Shumlin, Senators Hartwell andSears celebrating with the Regional AffordableHousing Corporation and Housing Vermont atthe ribbon cutting for Roaring Branch Apartmentsin Bennington.Congratulations to the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board andits many community partners for 25 years of investment in Vermont,improving the quality of our lives and the economic vitality of ourcommunities. Through a network of organizations, Vermonters have usedvhcb funding to secure almost 11,000 affordable homes and 400,000 acresof land for food and forest productivity, wildlife habitat protection and publicrecreation.These investments reinforce our multi-generation land use policy of compactvillage settlement surrounded by a working landscape. To complement vhcbinvestments, the Board’s community partners have generated more than a billiondollars in private equity loans and federal grants. The results are evidentin vibrant communities with revitalized historic downtown buildings, moreaffordable housing, an investment in our agricultural sector, and increasedrecreational opportunities for Vermonters, whether one loves to hunt, fish,snowmobile, ski, cycle or go for a quiet walk in the woods.In this last year, the Board’s housing partners have been busy assistingVermonters who lost their homes in Hurricane Irene. Additionally, the Boardhas invested $2 million to match the fema Hazard Mitigation Grant Program,helping homeowners who need to rebuild. Likewise, the Board’s conservationpartners have been working with farmers whose fields were devastated by Ireneand making certain that we conserve the natural floodplains that rivers needto avoid future devastation of our communities.Over the summer and fall, I’ve had the opportunity to visit housing developmentsfrom Bennington to Burlington. These projects combat climate changewith high levels of energy efficiency and smart growth locations. I continueto enjoy, as all Vermonters do, the simple pleasures provided by our countrysideof farmland and forested hills. The Board’s work helped set in motionmy administration’s first new program, the Working Lands Enterprise Board,which will build on our state’s investment in the infrastructure of our workingland enterprises, both agriculture andforestry.Finally, the 25 th anniversary wouldnot be complete without acknowledgingthe national recognition that cameto my home county after the Boardnominated the new Brattleboro FoodCo-op Building for the epa’s SmartGrowth Achievement Award as theBest Main Street Project in the UnitedStates—and we won!We all look forward to another 25 years of great success. Congratulations toall involved, and happy anniversary.Sincerely,Peter Shumlin, GovernorState of Vermont