MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - Middlebury College’s sale of a 30-acre property, the site of the former Maple Manor Motel along Route 7 in Middlebury, is now final, according to college administrators. Middlebury acquired the motel and accompanying acreage in 1992 as a gift from alumnus Gerard Trudeau, a member of the Middlebury College class of 1955, and his wife, Carolyn. Future plans for the land, which the Vermont-based development firm Middlebury South Village, LLC, bought for $1.1 million, will include affordable housing.

“The college received a number of proposals from developers who wanted to buy the property,” said Middlebury College President Ronald D. Liebowitz. “One of the reasons we were excited to sell the land to Jeff Glassberg and his partner Steve Reid at Middlebury South Village was because their plan included affordable housing. We’re glad, with the cost of housing on the rise, that Middlebury College employees and other residents of the local community will have the opportunity to buy or rent this housing.”

According to Glassberg, the new development, to be known as Middlebury South Village, is directly responsive to the Middlebury Town Plan, and received unanimous approval from the Middlebury Planning Commission earlier this year. Glassberg says that all other required land use permits, including Act 250, have been received.

“Ensuring that this housing will be affordable to families earning Addison County wages was an important goal of the developers and the college,” said Glassberg.

The development will include commercial space and residential neighborhoods, which will consist of 30 townhouse apartments and 56 single family homes. Glassberg says that more than half of the townhouse apartments will be rented at rates that are considered affordable to families with an annual household income of just under $36,000, a sum equal to 60 percent of the median income in Addison County. Many of the single family homes will be priced at or below $230,000, in accordance with Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) standards. The VHFA provided a loan to Middlebury South Village, LLC, to assist with permitting costs.

According to Glassberg, the old Maple Manor Motel will come down this fall and construction of the utility infrastructure will begin. By late November, progress on the project should be visible from Route 7. “We plan to have houses and apartments under construction in 2006,” said Glassberg.