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Committee explores whether CHIP funds could support town-center rehab in flood zone
Summary
Members agreed to ask the Vermont League contact whether CHIP funds can be used to redevelop pre-existing town-center buildings in a flood zone, and discussed a speculative mixed-use conversion tied to TIF or bond support and private partnership models.
Members reviewed notes from CHIP webinars and asked the committee’s contact to query Bonnie Waner (Vermont League of Cities and Towns) about whether CHIP funds could support redevelopment of an existing town‑center building that lies in the flood zone.
Why it matters: the building in question has been flagged as costly to repair and underused; members sketched a potential private‑public redevelopment in which a developer would rehabiIitate the structure with mixed-use housing and commercial space, the town could secure long-term lease terms (for example a 30-year token lease), and CHIP funding or a TIF-like incentive would reduce costs to the town and lower rents. Committee members emphasized this was a preliminary idea pending legal and program confirmation.
Members agreed to ask the Vermont League contact to clarify two distinct questions: whether CHIP rules permit use of funds on redevelopment of pre-existing buildings in a floodplain and whether CHIP recipients have used the program in a town-center redevelopment context. Andrew and others suggested talking to municipal examples, including St. Albans (a webinar case study), and the committee considered outreach to a developer contact in St. Albans who used TIF in redevelopment work.
Next steps: Virginia (committee member) agreed to forward the webinar links and to ask Bonnie for clarification on allowable CHIP uses. The committee also asked that any follow-up include explicit mention of constraints tied to floodplain redevelopment and other regulatory approvals.
