On the last day of the legislative session, state senators scrambled to save pieces of a bill that would change Act 250, Vermont’s sweeping land use law, changes that Gov. Phil Scott has all but promised to veto.
The bill passed the Senate 17-13 on Thursday. On its way to the governor’s desk, the bill took a spin through a merry-go-round of parliamentary procedure.
In the public eye, Act 250, Vermont’s sweeping land use law, has come into conflict with the state’s housing crisis, making it more difficult and time-consuming to build much-needed housing. Advocates of the changes contained in S.234 say the bill strikes a balance by easing some burdens on housing while adding some environmental safeguards, such as protections for forest blocks.
Act 250 requires people who are building commercial and industrial projects in certain areas to obtain permits certifying that they’ve considered and mitigated the environmental impacts of their work.
Earlier this week, the governor, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and Ted Brady, executive director of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, spoke against the bill, saying it doesn’t go far enough to alleviate the housing crisis. A chain reaction from lawmakers followed the governor’s announcement of his intentions to strike down the bill.
Early in the day on Thursday, Sen. Thomas Chittenden, D-Chittenden, proposed and withdrew an amendment that would have stripped the bill of its protections for forest blocks and the reformation of the Natural Resources Board, which currently oversees Act 250.
Then, lawmakers presented an alternative change: Earlier in the session, the House had stripped chunks from the Senate’s omnibus housing bill, S.226, and placed them in the Act 250 bill. Anticipating the bill’s likely death, senators placed the housing-specific pieces back into the housing bill. That bill, with its new amendments, passed both chambers on Thursday.
The remaining Act 250 bill included changes in the law’s governance structure. A new, professionalized Environmental Review Board would handle Act 250 appeals, which now go to the Environmental Division of the Vermont Superior Court.
Later, Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, proposed amending a section of the bill that described the purpose of changing the governance structure. The sentence read, “This change would allow the Act 250 program to return to how it was originally envisioned when enacted by being a citizen-friendly process.”
Sears argued the sentence was subjective; citizens in Rutland County, for example, used the Environmental Board to take action against Slate Ridge, a paramilitary “gunfighting” center in West Pawlet. Over violations of local zoning regulations, the Environmental Court ordered the center to permanently close, and the Supreme Court upheld the decision.
“I guess I’d have to ask the citizens in Pawlet that went to court over the Slate Ridge shooting range whether or not they felt that the only place that they got any sort of comfort was from the Environmental Division of our court,” he said.
Sears’ amendment would have sent the bill back through the House — adding a large hurdle on the last day of the session — but ultimately, he withdrew it.
“I’m going to withdraw the motion to amend because it doesn’t matter,” Sears said. “The governor’s gonna veto the bill anyway.”
