So this is extremely rough math but one could build four 250 unit apartment complexes on about 4 to 5 acres of land total depending on if there was below ground parking or not. I’m talking about very simple housing with 500 ft.² units in a 5 story building. If you make it five stories the footprint is about 25,000 ft.², add another 2,000-3,000 ft.² for paths, exterior building dimensions and whatever.

That leaves you with about 16,000 ft.². Your average parking space is about 320 ft.² you’ve only got parking for about 50 cars at max. One level of below ground parking would easily add another 50 cars. If each building lot was 1.5 acres you can get to about 200 cars between above and below ground parking, still a little short so maybe bump up to 7 acres for 1,000+ cars.

So yeah it’s not as simple as building a single family home on .08 acres but there has to be 6-7 buildable acres somewhere in this county. Hell build all four together, makes building parking easier. Or get a shuttle bus or two running nonstop into Burlington, that would be great for people who can’t afford, don’t want or can no longer drive a car.

Is it perfect? Hell no but I look at my little neighborhood and we have about eight houses on about 25 acres housing maybe 25 people on the outskirts of Chittenden County and my roughed out idea houses 40 times as many on 30% as much land. And yes I’m talking about very basic accommodations but that would work fine for a lot of working class people and young people. They’d still be close enough to commute to work without breaking the bank and if it was financially feasible a shuttle system would help even more. It doesn’t solve for all problems but it definitely helps.