Last time I talked about how we got to where we are and began to introduce some proven programs, starting with gigabit internet.
This week, I’ll introduce you to community solar and community housing trusts for the second part of this series.
Community solar is a program allowing the purchase of solar panels for people who rent or own property in town.
It enables them to buy solar panels and have those panels installed, along with others’ panels, on a designated piece of property. This acts as a community owned, de facto power plant.
These solar panels can be bought and sold, but only town residents can own them. With this program, moving across town or renting does not exclude you from saving money with solar.
A simple address change in the system means your savings follow you. In addition to this program, we need to outfit town-owned buildings with solar panels to save money on our ever-increasing electrical rates.
A Community Housing Trust is an elegant solution to provide affordable housing to young people and low-income families. Instead of creating housing projects, a housing trust purchases existing foreclosures, secures low interest loans for potential homeowners to purchase and improve the home, and then retains ownership of the land on which the house resides.
When the program participator decides to sell the property, they keep 25% of the accrued value of the home, allowing the homes to stay affordable. A leading positive aspect of this solution is that the owners generally maintain the property well because they hold financial interest in it. It is fully possible for a housing trust to pay taxes on the land they own, and although their non-profit status exempts them from doing so, the taxes are usually paid anyways as a show of dedication to the community.
This solution prevents drastic increases in the housing market from alienating young and lower-income people from a community. This also allows taxes to remain low and the housing market to stabilize, preventing excessive market bubbles or high vacancy rates.
These benefits are just the tip of the iceberg. As our community becomes enriched, people become attracted here as tourists, causing businesses to flourish. More people begin to move into town, lowering vacancy rates in Seymour’s homes. This all raises the town’s grand list, causing the mill rate to lower, as long as spending is kept in check.
As businesses begin to flourish, we must keep in mind that a diversity of business types is beneficial. While restaurants and retail outlets benefit the town’s consumers, technology and manufacturing firms offer better paying jobs and a higher rate of stability. For this reason, certain avenues of progress should be explored when enriching our community.
We should consider reaching out to a local community college to encourage the construction of a technology-based Seymour campus, in order to raise the education of the workforce and attract opportunity to our town.
There’s one more part in this series. Stay tuned!
The author is running on the Democratic line for the Seymour Board of Selectmen.
