Sugarbush’s efforts to construct two workforce housing projects, one called the Sugar Cubes and the other at the site of the former Rosita’s Restaurant are ongoing, but currently slowed in the regulatory process.
That’s the word from resort communications manager John Bleh.
“The two projects we’ve been working on (Sugar Cubes and Rosita’s) have slowed down due to neighbor negotiations and the regulatory process. They’re still chugging along, but at a bit of a slower pace,” Bleh said.
This winter Sugarbush received Act 250 permission for the demolition phase of the Sugar Cube project at the corner of the Golf Course Road and Sugarbush Access Road in Warren. Further Act 250 permits for construction have not been issued.
An earlier appeal by an abutter of Sugarbush’s local permit for the Sugar Cube project was dismissed with prejudice by Vermont Superior Court on August 30, 2023.
The stipulated motion to dismiss was made by Sugarbush and the appellant Roberta Principe, who owns the lots and a dwelling in a small subdivision where Sugarbush is planning its Sugar Cube project.
The Sugar Cube workforce housing project, was approved by the Warren Development Review Board last spring after the resort reached a legal agreement with Principe regarding infrastructure. That infrastructure included water, wastewater, and screening.
The Sugar Cube project is to be constructed at the corner of Golf Course and Sugarbush Access Road on three small pre-existing, non-conforming lots. Principe owns a fourth lot in the late 1960s subdivision. Currently all four lots share a well and wastewater. The agreement calls for Sugarbush to drill a well for its three lots and deed the existing well to Principe.
The Sugar Cube project consists of redeveloping a total of 12 previously permitted bedrooms in a single-story, four-bedroom house and a three-story duplex with each portion featuring four bedrooms.
Sugarbush’s other workforce housing project is proposed for further up the Sugarbush Access Road on the north side of the road where Rosita’s Restaurant had been located. That parcel is located between the back of the Sugarbush Health and Recreation Center and the Sugartree Inn.
The resort is proposing to tear down the existing Rosita’s building to construct a four-story building with 18 studio apartments and 192 single rooms for resort employees.
Each floor of the Rosita’s building features two wings of 24 single rooms and four shared, 10-fixture bathrooms. Each bathroom would contain two bull bathrooms with shower, two shared sinks, one private toilet and one private shower. The residential wings share living, dining and kitchen facilities and there are laundry facilities on site.
This project involves 13.59 acres made up of SHARC, Rosita’s and Sugartree land. The resort is seeking to create a mixed residential building with multi-family dwellings and boarding house uses and a change of use designation for the Sugartree Inn from a single-family home and inn to a single-family home and boarding house. That project is still in permitting.
In terms of housing for employees this season and in the interim, Bleh said the resort continues to rent local properties and house employees in its own properties.
“Last year, for the 2023/24 ski season, we housed 225 employees in nine Sugarbush owned residential facilities, eight rented residential facilities (Sugarbush rented these to house employees) and then 17 facilities enrolled in the Tenants for Turns Program. We set rental rates at 30% of monthly income. The 2022/23 ski season saw similar stats. We’re underway getting housing set for this ski season again, which should also have numbers in that ballpark. We also house a lesser number of employees in the summer,” he said.
