By Dave Fidlin | The Center Square
Vermont municipal leaders and developers have given their support to a legislation aimed at increasing the supply of affordable housing across the state through incentives. However, a decades-old law bubbled back up to the surface.
Nearly a dozen people associated with housing development and municipal planning and leadership offered testimony on Thursday as the House Committee on Environment and Energy reviewed Senate Bill 100.
The legislation, which has passed the Senate, touches on a range of technical details – including parking accommodations for multifamily residential developments – as well as more blanket provisions. Municipalities, for instance, cannot outright ban multifamily dwellings within their incorporated boundaries under the proposal.
One component within SB 100 could bring changes to Vermont’s decades-old Act 250, a land-use development law that has narrowed where large-scale commercial and residential developments can be situated in communities.
In light of what some have deemed a “housing crisis” across many corners of the state, SB 100 proposes rolling back some provisions within Act 250. The Senate fielded concerns about changes to the law during its deliberations and passage of the bill.
The relaxed provisions could, in some instances, create challenges for municipalities, Chip Sawyer, director of planning and development with the City of St. Albans, said.
“We do have some key language suggestions that we would like to request to limit some of the unintended consequences at the local level as we try to build more housing,” Sawyer said, pointing to parking space requirements within the bill as one example.
St. Albans has been aggressive with housing development, Sawyer said, referring to the permitting of 220 dwelling units in the past decade and plans for an additional 200 dwelling units “in the next few years.”
“S.100 is an ambitious bill, with an overall goal to address Vermont’s housing crisis in an immediate and equitable way, and is laudable,” Sawyer said. “There’s a lot to support in this bill.“
Zeke Davisson is the chief operating officer with Summit Properties, a developer of various housing development communities, including some of the affordable and workforce projects that have been a driving force of SB 100.
Changes to Act 250, Davisson said, could mean changes to such projects as Stonecrop Meadows, a proposed 175- to 225-unit residential housing project Summit is currently undertaking in the Town of Middlebury.
“These limited changes are going to have an impact on a project we’re planning, and a lot of other mixed-income communities that are going to come behind it,” Davisson said.
The panel also heard from representatives of one of the state’s largest communities based on population.
Helen Riehle, chair of the South Burlington City Council, was among the municipal representatives who spoke to the House panel amid the SB 100 hearing.
The legislation, Riehle said, could serve as an essential guidebook for the community of more than 20,000 people that continues to grow in population.
“The city strongly supports the goals and many of the provisions of S.100,” Riehle said. “We’re deeply appreciative of your effort to address the critical shortage of affordable housing in Vermont.”
