Republican Gov. Phil Scott says legislation he vetoed earlier this year could nonetheless provide a key pathway toward the construction of needed affordable housing in Vermont.
Scott vetoed the Legislature’s signature land-use reform bill in June over concerns that it would “slow down current housing efforts.” Scott has referred to the legislation, pejoratively, as a “conservation bill” that will “make it harder to build.”
“Despite almost universal consensus, I don’t believe we’ve done nearly enough to address Vermont’s housing affordability crisis,” Scott wrote in his veto message to Democratic lawmakers.
We have two years now to take advantage of this interim exemption window, so we all need to pay attention and work together to get more housing built.Lindsay Kurrle, Secretary of Commerce and Community Development
At a press conference on Wednesday, however, Scott said the bill — which was enacted into law after Democrats overrode his veto — contains a key provision that developers, municipalities and property owners can leverage over the next two years to expedite the pace of new construction in Vermont.
“I was so disappointed when the Legislature failed to meet the moment when it comes to housing and affordability,” Scott said Wednesday. “However, we did come away with some tools, but are only in place for two short years, so we need to act quickly to help address this housing crisis.”
Those “tools” come in the form of temporary exemptions that will eliminate Act 250 jurisdiction over projects as large as 75 units in some downtowns. Lindsay Kurrle, Secretary of Commerce and Community Development, said the Vermont Natural Resources Board published a map last week that outlines the borders of the interim exemption zones. And she urged municipal officials, employers and private developers to seize the opportunity to avoid state regulations that might otherwise delay or add costs to construction projects.
“We have two years now to take advantage of this interim exemption window, so we all need to pay attention and work together to get more housing built,” Kurrle said.
The Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development published a federally mandated Statewide Housing Needs Assessment last week that says the state will need anywhere between 24,000 and 36,000 new residential units in Vermont by 2029 to meet demand.
The report also found that half of all renters in Vermont spend more than 30% of their annual income on housing, and that one quarter of residents spend more than half their incomes on rent.
Chittenden County Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, a Democrat, said that “finger pointing” by the Scott administration or by lawmakers is of little value to the thousands of Vermonters experiencing the state’s housing “crisis” firsthand.
“[Vermonters] want to have these conversations with us, and then have us continue to refine our solutions. And if we start despairing and saying, ‘This is going to work, or this isn’t going to work,’ I think we’ve lost the plot as decision makers,” Ram Hinsdale told Vermont Public Wednesday. “It’s taken us decades to get into this crisis, and it’s going to take us decades to get out.”
Ram Hinsdale, who helped craft the bill that Scott vetoed, said the temporary Act 250 exemptions “were the most important piece” of the legislation.
“When you look at our health care crisis, our education finance crisis, our climate displacement crisis, all of it points back to an immediate and emergency need for more housing, so I … pushed as hard as I thought I could to get interim exemptions,” she said.
Ram Hinsdale said the same bill creates a two-year process to develop more permanent Act 250 exemption zones.
“We need to be thorough about the process of creating maps that hopefully last us another half century,” she said.
Administration officials say those permanent maps, which will go into effect in 2027, will indeed figure prominently in the future of housing development in the state.
Commissioner of Housing and Community Development Alex Farrell said Wednesday that he’s urging Vermonters to participate in that planning process, which is being led by the state’s 11 regional planning commissions, to ensure that those exemption zones are as broad as possible.
“We’re strongly encouraging municipalities, property owners and municipalities to engage in this process now, at the beginning of the mapping process, and remain engaged throughout the process,” Farrell said. “It could mean the difference between your property being exempted from Act 250, or being included where there is increased jurisdiction.”
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