Hinesburg committee preps for new growth, development

Will Patten is the owner of the Hinesburgh Public House, a restaurant and pub in the town’s village, and every day out his front door he sees thousands upon thousands of cars drive through along Route 116.

Hinesburg, he says, is “a town where everybody drives through, but they don’t stop very often.”

But with a boom in residential development expected in the next several years, Patten and others see an opportunity — to generate a downtown business community that could make Hinesburg a place where people drive to and “spend a day or an afternoon,” Patten said.

In the next six to 10 years, more than 400 units of residential housing are set either for approval or construction. The town’s population is expected to increase by at least 20 percent, and it’s creating a renewal of interest in the role of the town’s economic development committee, first formed in 2013 that members say has yet to be used to its full potential.

“I love Hinesburg, but I think we can do a better job, especially just before we increase our population by 25 to 30 percent,” he said at his appointment hearing in November.

Melissa Levy, the chair of the committee since its formation in 2013, has seen new life brought to the committee when, only several months ago, the committee often did not have enough people to hold meetings.

Now that they have a quorum, with Patten appointed in November and Travis Counter, the owner of Good Times Cafe, appointed in January, they plan on holding several community forums in April for business owners and residents, “and hopefully start doing some visioning around how the business community in Hinesburg can benefit and seize the opportunity.”

“I think it’s time for that committee to really start seeing that they can do in Hinesburg,” selectboard member Mike Loner said at a Jan. 18 meeting, when Counter was appointed.

Levy and Steve Gladstone, another committee member, have been on the committee since its inception. Since its start, they have had access to the town’s revolving loan fund, an offshoot of a loan from the Vermont Community Development Program initially made to Vermont Smoke and Cure, which allowed that company to move into the former Saputo Cheese Plant.

Fifty percent of that original grant has since been paid back, but the remaining funds have been repurposed into a community fund. But only two loans have been given out over the years — one to Good Times Café and another to Shrubbly, both of which are being paid back. The town still has more than $120,000 in available capital.

Part of the committee’s goal is to let the community know that fund exists.

“We would love to have more businesses take advantage of it,” Levy said.

Since the beginning of the new year, members of the committee have been individually reaching out to local business owners in the village, Levy said, to see how things are going in the post-pandemic world.

Businesses seem to be in good shape, committee members said, albeit many still have trouble retaining workers. But many said they welcome the idea of a walkable downtown.

“I think it is about creating kind of a downtown culture, and we don’t really have that yet,” she said. “But with all these new developments coming online, hopefully, there’s more of a critical mass to help that idea along.”

While other towns have taken advantage of their proximity to Route 7, or to I-89, there are “upsides and downsides” to developing on the less trafficked Route 116.

“We’re going to have parking problems, and traffic problems,” Patten said. “But there will be a much bigger customer base, so hopefully, out of this will come an energized business community in Hinesburg that will work together.”