by Don Keelan

On September 5, 2026, the Bennington Banner ran a full-page ad supporting the repurposing of the former Southern Vermont College (SVC) into a five-star Orchards Resort. 

This ad was notable: 47 individuals placed it, framing themselves as neighbors and abutters to the planned project, and writing to “express our strong and unequivocal support for the proposed Orchards Resort.” 

In over 50 years of involvement in real estate projects–residential and commercial–I have never seen neighbors or abutters place an ad supporting a project next to or near where they reside.  

SVC existed for over 52 years on a campus that once was the estate, The Orchards, of the ‘bottle king’, Edward Everett (1859-1929). In 2019, the college joined the list of other closed Vermont colleges. After a neighbor, Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, acquired the property in 2020, the former college gym served as a vaccination center during the Covid-19 pandemic. The campus has been idle ever since.

In 2023, a Westchester County, N.Y. development firm entered into a contract to purchase the property, subject to obtaining approvals to build a five-star resort. The completed project will cost tens of millions of dollars, employ over 200 full-time staff, and leave a substantial portion of the 370-plus-acre property in conservation and open to the public for hiking. When fully operational, the project would, as noted in the above-mentioned ad, “create an economic engine with benefits extending throughout the region.”  

This past July, the developer successfully obtained the Town’s Design Review Board’s approval. The project’s plans and specs are now in the Act 250 review stage. Fortunately, the latter can move forward despite a disgruntled neighbor filing a lawsuit objecting to the DRB’s decision. According to the filing, the neighbor states that their concerns were not satisfactorily addressed. The lawsuit awaits a determination by a Vermont Superior Court judge on whether to accept or deny the filing. 

Neighbors or abutters often file lawsuits (often pro se) objecting to a real estate project’s approval. A recent example occurred in Putney, where objecting neighbors held up a 25-unit affordable housing project for two years. The project is now underway, but it has already incurred substantial time losses, legal costs, and increases in construction material and labor costs. 

Southern Vermont has many factors that have prevented real estate development from moving forward. What has been conspicuously absent is holding objectors who file lawsuits accountable, as well as anemic support from neighbors (except for the 47 in the Orchards project), the business community, nonprofit organizations, and local and state elected officials.

A neighbor or abutter has the right to sue if they disagree with an approval granted to a real estate project. However, they should also be held accountable for any costs the developer incurs if the lawsuit does not favor them. Accordingly, the plaintiff should be required to post a bond with the court. The bond’s value would be set at a percentage of the project’s estimated costs. If the project’s estimated all-in cost is $10 million, the bond’s value would be $1 million.  The bond would be drawn upon to cover the developer’s additional costs incurred stemming from the lawsuit delay. 

All too often I have noted that many objections are frivolous.

The reason for objecting–excessive noise, traffic, stormwater runoff, or taxing the town’s existing utilities infrastructure–is really that the objector does not want the development to take place at all. 

Vermont has many reasons for its housing crisis. One is that capable developers are unwilling to invest millions of dollars in pre-development costs only to be held up at the conclusion of the approval process by a discontented abutter. 

What I would love to see in Bennington (and in Southern Vermont) is support from nonprofits, businesses, and town officials for real estate projects that will clearly benefit the community. 

The 47 named supporters were right on point when they noted that the resort would be “a significant boost to our region’s museums, theaters, galleries, and other cultural attractions.” It is time for the area’s beneficiaries of the Orchard Resort to make their support public.

The author is a U.S. Marine (retired), CPA, and columnist living in Arlington, VT.