Find attached an early notice for the evaluation of floodplain impacts for the Mountain Home Buyout project. The purpose of the 8 step process is to evaluate floodplain impacts from proposed projects and consider alternatives that would better protect floodplains and public and personal health and safety. This project will develop 26 home sites in Mountain Home Park. The sites will be developed with bulk purchased mobile homes. Twenty six households living in floodways and areas of deep flooding will be relocated to the new sites. Homes, roads, utilities, and foundations for the discontinued sites will be removed and the area will be placed under a conservation easement. More details can be found on the Planning Department page at Brattleboro.org, see “Mountain Home Park Buyouts” in the right sidebar. Please submit comments or questions to this email, Brian Bannon, Zoning Administrator
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Early Notice and Public Review of a Proposed Activity in a 100–Year/500–year Floodplain in the town of Brattleboro
To: All interested Agencies, Groups and Individuals
This is to give notice that Brian Bannon, CFM, the Responsible Entity under Part 58has determined that the following proposed action under Mountain Home Park Buyouts and Vermont Emergency Management project #FRCF–33500–024 is located in part in the 100–year/500–year floodplain and the Responsible Entity will be identifying and evaluating practicable alternatives to locating the action in the floodplain and the potential impacts on the floodplain from the proposed action, as required by Executive Order 11988 in accordance with HUD regulations at 24 CFR 55.20 Subpart C Procedures for Making Determinations on Floodplain Management and Protection of Wetlands. This project plans to construct 26 new home sites within Mountain Home Park in areas of low natural hazard, bulk purchase and install 26 new manufactured homes at these new sites and then help relocate 26 households currently living within Mountain Home Park’s floodway and floodplain. The homes that are presently in the flood hazard area will then be removed (along with their associated foundations/utilities/etc) and the land will be placed under a conservation easement held by
Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources. The project is funded by a consortium of state and federal funding sources and is considered Affordable Housing; funders for the $5,895,000.00 project include the Vermont Flood Resilient Communities Fund, Congressionally Directed Spending, Vermont Homeowner Tax Credit, Community Development Block Grant, VermontHousing and Conservation Board Grant, and Vermont Housing Finance Authority.
Tri–Park Housing Cooperative is wholly owned by its resident shareholders and exists to support its mission of providing low– and middle–income people with safe, decent, and affordable housing. Completing this project will have the direct impact of greatly reducing the safety risk flooding poses to the households residing in the Special Flood Hazard Area. Buyout funding will provide
much needed financial stability to the Cooperative by securing the rent revenue of these 26 at–risk units at a time when the Cooperative is making many hazard–mitigating investments (as identified in its 2020 Master Plan). Without the buyout support, it is unlikely that residents could afford to move out of flood hazard areas.
Homes targeted for relocation are located in the floodway along Brookwood Drive and Village Drive. Additional homes in areas of deep flooding in the flood fringe of the Special Flood Hazard Area along Edgewood Drive and Woodvale Drive will also be targeted for relocation. Most new home locations will be located in the upland portions of the park; three existing sites located outside of the Special Flood Hazard Area boundaries as shown on the effective FIRM will be reoccupied. All sites will be on HUD conforming pads and properly anchored and elevated.
The project will be subject to Brattleboro and State of Vermont erosion control standards during construction, with all disturbed soils mulched and/or seeded by end of construction.
The project will allow for the restoration of a riparian buffer along the Whetstone andHalladay Brooks as well the restoration of a natural pattern of flooding and the reestablishment of channel equilibrium and general floodplain function. The conserved area will be available forpassive outdoor recreational use.
The project is not located in whole or in part on wetlands as shown on the National Wetlands Inventory or during site investigation in the development of the Tri Park Master Plan.The project may allow for the reemergence of wetlands on the project site.
The project is located in the Town of Brattleboro, Windham County, Vermont.
There are three primary purposes for this notice. First, people who may be affected by activities in the floodplain and those who have an interest in the protection of the natural environment should be given an opportunity to express their concerns and provide information about these areas.Commenters are encouraged to offer alternative sites outside of the floodplain, alternative methods to serve the same project purpose, and methods to minimize and mitigate impacts. Second, an adequate public notice program can
be an important public educational tool. The dissemination of information and request for public comment about floodplains can facilitate and enhance Federal efforts to reduce the risks and impacts associated with the occupancy and modification of these special areas. Third, as a matter of fairness, when the Federal government determines it will participate in actions taking place in floodplains it must inform those who may be put at greater or continued risk.
Written comments must be received by the Responsible Entity at the following address on or before March 6, 2023: Planning Services, 230 Main St., Ste. 202, Brattleboro, VT 05301Attention: Brian Bannon, CFM, Zoning Administrator or at 802–251–8111 or atbbannon@brattleboro.org
A full description of the project may also be reviewed from 9am–5pm at the above address and at the Planning Department page of brattleboro.org Comments may also be submitted via email to planning@brattleboro.org
February 14, 2023
