Lawmakers in the Vermont House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to support a bill aimed at making Act 250 — the state’s sweeping land use and development law — more accessible.
“Act 250 was designed to be a locally centered process, close to the people, so that they would know that their voice was being heard. We have moved away from that process,” said Rep. Seth Bongartz, D-Manchester, a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife who spoke about the bill on the House floor.
If passed, H.492 would reform the structure of the Natural Resources Board, which oversees Act 250.
The law, enacted in 1970 to control development in Vermont, requires qualifying commercial and industrial developments to obtain a permit. Those who oversee Act 250 scrutinize projects under its jurisdiction using 10 points of criteria.
When it was passed, Act 250 was administered by nine district commissions and a body that heard appeals from those district commissions, called the “environmental board,” which had nine members — a full-time chair and eight citizen members. When hearing appeals, the board would travel to the town where the case was located to make a site visit and, “equally important, for the convenience of those involved in the process,” Bongartz said.
Over time, he told lawmakers on the floor, the process has become more legally involved, and it became harder for the eight people on the board — many of whom had other jobs — to shoulder the workload and properly prepare for hearings.
In 2004, the Legislature moved the appeal process to Vermont’s Environmental Court, under the assumption that a judge could best assess the legal matters at hand.
“Madam Speaker, your Committee on Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife has reached the conclusion that this change swung the pendulum too far in the other direction,” Bongartz said Tuesday.
The change had a number of unintended consequences, he said. The courtroom setting of appeals, for example, has made the process less accessible and more expensive.
Instead, the bill proposes establishing a professional board, which would again assume the name “Environmental Review Board” instead of “Natural Resources Board.” It would be made up of a full-time chair and four part-time members, and it would oversee the Act 250 appeals process.
“By professionalizing the board, we make it possible to build a body of knowledge about the issues in the process,” Bongartz told lawmakers.
Alongside the governor, a new seven-member nominating committee would choose Environmental Review Board members. Board members would serve five-year terms.
“The governor shall ensure board membership shall reflect, to the extent possible, the racial, ethnic, gender, and geographic diversity of the state,” the bill says. “The board shall not contain two members who reside in the same county.”
Bongartz said that, at the beginning of the biennium, Gov. Phil Scott asked the Legislature to professionalize the Natural Resources Board, calling for board members with “experience and depth of knowledge.” That’s what this bill does, Bongartz said.
“With the board hearing appeals, we move from the hyper-legalistic setting and processes of Environmental Court — with a judge in a robe on a bench — to the more informal setting and processes of the Environmental Review Board, sitting at a table in the local Grange Hall,” he said.
Some lawmakers who dissented on the House floor Tuesday said the changes were not significant enough to address problems caused by the Act 250 process.
Rep. Pattie McCoy, R-Poultney, said she could not “support a bill that does nothing but move the deck chairs.”
“Major changes to Act 250 are required if we are to move our state forward and modernize how we welcome and invite businesses to move here in an economical fashion without rules, regulations and permitting processes that take upwards of two years to get through,” she said.
Another bill, S.234, which is currently making its way through the Senate, proposes a different set of changes to Act 250.
Bongartz said the House bill would result in fundamental change and address emerging issues in the state that are best addressed by a professional board responsible for shaping the implementation of the law.
“Housing, development in downtowns, forest fragmentation, a changing climate need to be thought through and well implemented by a hands-on board rather than an adrift entity without any role in shaping these important, substantive challenges,” he said.
Jon Groveman, policy and water program director for the Vermont Natural Resources Council, an organization that worked to implement Act 250 decades ago, applauded the House members’ support of the bill.
“H.492 is a linchpin to creating a stronger Act 250 program at a time when Vermont needs it most,” he said in a statement. “A robust Act 250 program led by an expert, independent board will be key to addressing environmental challenges like climate change and the influx of people it will bring to Vermont.”
The bill will be read a final time on the House floor and, if approved, will head to the Senate.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misrendered part of a quotation from Rep. Seth Bongartz. He called the Environmental Court a “hyper-legalistic setting.”
