RUTLAND, Vt. (WCAX) – Rutland officials are looking at reducing water and wastewater permit costs as a way to help spur new housing.
Rutland Mayor Mike Doenges last year announced a goal to add 1,000 new housing units within five years. To entice more growth, officials are suggesting reducing permit costs for water and sewer hookups and charging new developments significantly less to use city water. The goal is to bring more developers to Rutland.
“It’d be very cost-effective to do — whereas before it might have been even more, now you can do that, so it can allow people to develop additional rental income on their properties and the cost of doing that business with the city is lower,” Doenges said. “We’re not taking money away, we’re generating future growth in these systems, and that’s a really really good thing both for the citizens that live here and the people that want to develop here, and for the city itself.”
City officials want to try out the idea for at least two years. The full Board of Alderman is expected to vote within the coming weeks.