Montpelier has its long-awaited housing blueprint for Country Club Road

MONTPELIER — Four years after buying a 138-acre former golf course to help solve its housing crisis, Montpelier finally has its most detailed development blueprint to date for Country Club Road.

Under a non-binding letter of intent approved unanimously by the Montpelier City Council, developer DEW Properties has proposed building an initial 108 housing units on roughly 20 buildable acres along the site’s lower ridge.

The agreement represents the most concrete vision produced for the Country Club Road property since city voters authorized its purchase in 2022.

“We were just eager to get involved if they wanted us involved,” Robert Wells, development coordinator for DEW Properties, told VTDigger Monday. “So happy that the (selection) process is done now, and we can get started.” 

Shovels aren’t set to hit dirt until around 2028, though, Wells said. The city and the company are waiting on a market evaluation, determining whether or not the project’s size and timeline are feasible for Montpelier. 

The letter of intent serves as a placeholder, solidifying the city’s choice for a development firm as it awaits the evaluation process before executing a formal development agreement. This process allows either party to walk away if financial terms cannot be reached.

While the city’s municipal schedule originally targeted October 19 for executing a final development agreement, the City Council did not vote to approve the preliminary letter of intent until October 14. 

DEW Properties, based out of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, previously built the housing above the Transit Center in Montpelier and worked on Barre City Place.

The development project has long-been controversial. And unclear. The initial $2 million bond vote to purchase the property in 2022 was met with questions about property taxes and affordability. A citywide vote passed narrowly, 1,205-1,021.  

The real estate development and property management service DEW Properties was selected from a pool of four New England-based developers who had submitted proposals, responded to questions and attended interviews with the city since December 2025. 

But by July, the City Council’s Country Club Road subcommittee had narrowed the search down to DEW Properties and Chinburg Properties. 

After requesting secondary proposals from DEW and Chinburg, the subcommittee opted to recommend DEW Properties. 

Reasons for the endorsement included development that “best balances housing production with preservation of the site’s natural and recreational assets” and “a phased approach that aligns infrastructure investments with market demand,” according to the council’s decision memo.

The subcommittee’s vote for DEW Properties in July was “pretty much a unanimous” one, Alfano said, as DEW “took an extra step” in their second proposal. “They were extraordinarily conscientious about answering our questions,” he said.

DEW Properties expects to have the market study’s results back by the end of the year, which will impact planning and budgeting, Wells said. 

A poor finding would likely require making cost, material or timeline adjustments, Alfano said, before signing a development agreement, locking the relationship in. 

“Nothing’s ever impossible,” Wells said. “I would say it just gets more challenging, and we’re pretty good at figuring out challenges.”

Major legal, financial and regulatory hurdles still remain before any construction can begin.

DEW Properties and the city still await the results of the market study. Construction costs, local buyer demand and price absorption must be feasible, or the proposed layout could be modified or abandoned entirely.

Montpelier is projected to spend $8 million on infrastructure to bring water, sewer and road improvements to the site. The city has secured grant funding, including a $3 million Northern Borders Regional Commission grant, to cover the bill, according to the city’s Planning Director Mike Miller. 

Finally, the property must undergo environmental cleanup to address historical golf course pesticide contamination, complete local zoning reviews and clear state Act 250 land-use permitting before work can begin. Wells said he expects this to take between four and 12 months. 

“This is a fairly large project for Vermont, so we wanted to give an adequate timeline for that permitting, due diligence and feasibility aspect of the project.”

Country Club Road units are expected to open to occupants in 2029 or 2030, Wells said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Montpelier has its long-awaited housing blueprint for Country Club Road.