Brisk turnout for Chester housing development open house

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC

On a sunny, almost spring afternoon on Tuesday, more than 100 people gathered inside Chester’s Town Hall to attend an open house to gather the public’s opinion on ideas for developing a piece of land owned by the town for accessible and affordable housing.

The presentation was prepared by SE Group of Burlington and was run by that firm’s Community & Recreation Planner Noelle Gignoux. Gignoux knows the area, having grown up in Cavendish and graduated from Green Mountain High.

Town Manager Julie Hance told The Telegraph that people were at Town Hall for the open house before it was set to begin at 4 p.m. and it continued to be busy.

Attendees signed in and took a tour around a collection of easels that contained information about the problem (lack of affordable housing) a proposal (to use a 139- acre lot purchased for siting a backup water tank) and several possible scenarios for developing the site.

For example, there were numerous possibilities given for the type of housing that might be developed on the property including tiny homes, cottage courts, condos, town homes, duplexes, courtyard apartments, multi-family units and single family units

The idea was for people to move around and place colored dots to express opinions on what would be the best option for the town to take. While a number of people read and placed stickers, others gathered in the center of the room to talk about the problem and the exercise at hand.

Gignoux told The Telegraph that the turnout was strong and that those who were not able to make it could go online to see the ideas and complete the survey between now and Friday, April 4. To learn more and take the survey click here.

SE group was the organization that carried out Village Center Master Plan for the area around Main Street and the Green in 2017.