Two months after lawmakers voted to overhaul the state’s land use and development law, Vermonters can see the temporary changes to Act 250.
Areas currently exempt from the Act 250 land use review process – and thus cleared for residential development – will now be documented on a statewide interactive map, according to a Thursday press release from the Department of Housing and Community Development.
The exemptions will remain in effect until 2027 while lawmakers work to flesh out the changes Act 181 will make to Act 250.
Act 250 was first passed in 1970 to review development plans, considering their environmental, aesthetic and community impacts. But with an acute housing shortage shaping Vermont’s economy — and towns scrambling to attract and retain families to fill their schools and job openings — state leaders pushed to reform the law this legislative session.
Act 181 passed in June when lawmakers overrode Gov. Phil Scott’s veto. Scott had previously opposed the bill because he felt it did not do enough to solve “Vermont’s housing crisis.” But supporters of the bill argued that it could reform Act 250 to balance promoting housing with protecting the environment.
Act 181 is designed to modernize Act 250 over the next five years, breaking Vermont into categories that determine how development is treated and reviewed. That’s a departure from how Act 250 works today, where review is largely triggered based on the size of a project rather than its location.
Until those boundaries and rules are finalized, Act 250’s interim exemption areas create space for residential development in urban centers where jobs, amenities, schools and transportation are already concentrated. All exemption areas are designed to encourage development only in compact centers, which should help Vermont maintain its rural character and protect the environment, according to the Natural Resources Board’s program outline.
Under the temporary guidelines, all housing projects in the state’s 24 designated inner-city areas are exempt from review under Act 250. Priority housing projects – those designed as mixed-income housing units in designated neighborhoods and growth centers – are also allowed unlimited construction without review, according to the Natural Resources Board.
In other areas, such as town and village centers, development projects are exempt from review but limited to a certain number of new housing units, according to the Natural Resources Board.
“These new exemption areas are a breakthrough, but they won’t get us there,” Department of Housing and Community Development Commissioner Alex Farrell said in the release. “We need more housing now. We hope developers will take advantage of this limited window of opportunity when development can occur more cost-effectively without Act 250 review, but we also need long-term solutions that will allow for the creation and rehabilitation of housing units in every corner of Vermont.”
