Lawmakers and governor continue to tussle over housing, Act 250 reforms

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – A Statehouse battle over how to spur more housing development is ramping up ahead of a key deadline. Crossover day is on Friday, when major bills must advance to the opposite chamber to be considered this session. It comes as the governor is worried lawmakers are not only failing to advance his preferred pro-housing legislation but could hinder progress.

“If we truly have a housing crisis, then we need to treat it like one. So, I’m asking the Legislature to send me a real housing bill,” Gov. Phil Scott said Wednesday at his weekly press briefing. The governor says the state’s housing crunch is having ripple effects, from a shrinking tax base to health care to education to the workforce.

With crossover at the Statehouse just days away, Scott says a bill with more tax incentives and funding for housing has stalled. “We need more progress and less politics to get it done,” he said. The governor is also raising alarm bells about an Act 250 reform bill that he says will further stifle growth.

“We’re looking at this as a chiropractic adjustment to Act 250,” said Rep. Amy Sheldon, D-Middlebury, chair of the House Committee on Environment and Energy. She disagrees the land use measure is the root of the state’s housing crisis and that the Scott administration should provide more funding for housing developers and put more effort toward regulating Vermont’s roughly 17,000 short-term rentals. “Changes to land use, particularly in the short-term, don’t build houses.”

A separate measure to loosen Act 250 by allowing more density in parcels hooked up to water and sewer, limiting people’s ability to appeal Act 250 decisions, and more exemptions for home building has also stalled.

Lawmakers who are also on the Legislature’s housing committee say their hands are tied and their committees are not allowed to address Act 250 and land use regulation. “Addressing this aspect of the housing crisis will take every possible tool. As I’ve outlined, the process is broken,” said Rep. Caleb Elder, D-Starksboro.

What a final Act 250 deal at the end of the session could look like remains a moving target.