The Vermont House gave preliminary approval to a wide-ranging housing bill Monday that would legalize duplexes anywhere single-family homes are allowed and four-plexes if the area is served by water and sewer.
S.100 passed by voice vote after a marathon floor session during which lawmakers took an hour-long break to make additional last-minute tweaks. But save for new, time-limited exemptions to Act 250, Vermont’s landmark land-use law, the bill mostly mirrors a Senate-passed version, which largely dealt with municipal zoning reform.
Vermont is in the midst of a well-documented housing crisis. Vermont’s rental vacancy rates are among the lowest in the nation while its per-capita rates of homelessness are among the highest. The Vermont Housing Finance Agency estimates that the state will need between 30,000 and 40,000 new units of housing by 2030 to meet demand and return to a healthy housing market.
But while Vermont’s housing crunch may, by many metrics, be more acute than it is elsewhere in America, the problem is nationwide. And as Vermont attempts to tackle the crisis, it is taking its cues from housing reformers across the country who say that permitting and zoning are primary drivers of an inadequate housing supply.
Reformers argue that certain municipal rules — such as single-family zoning — effectively outlaw cheaper, denser housing and allow the affluent to live in essentially segregated communities. Oregon banned single-family zoning in 2019; California followed suit in 2021; and Washington state is on track to do so this year.
Zoning “can have discriminatory impacts,” Rep. Seth Bongartz, D-Manchester, the architect of municipal reforms included in S.100, told his colleagues on the floor.
“Large lot sizes, excess parking requirements, excess setbacks, height limitations all drive up costs and make it harder for low- and even moderate-income people to be able to live in the communities in which they work,” he continued. “A real community has people of all incomes living and working together as neighbors.”
The bill would also ease local parking space requirements, which developers say often require housing projects to sacrifice units to make room for over-abundant parking. Residents appealing a zoning permit of an affordable housing project also won’t be allowed to do so on the grounds that it goes against the “character of the area.” Among other reforms, the legislation would remove some zoning barriers to building and operating homeless shelters.
Several provisions, including new density requirements, specifically apply to areas served by municipal water and sewer, and the bill’s proponents say they’re intentionally directing new housing into areas that are already developed.
“If we’re going to build thousands of units of housing in the next eight to 10 years, we should be doing it largely in our downtowns and village centers. The alternative is sprawl. And making it easier to build in Vermont’s historic centers will result in more sustainable and economically vibrant communities,” Bongartz said.
It is hard to gauge how effective the reforms outlined in the bill would be. California’s new duplex law, for example, has had a limited impact so far, according to a new study from the University of California, Berkeley. And it is unknown how many municipalities in Vermont haven’t already instituted such measures as single-family zoning, although a group of researchers at the University of Vermont is currently at work on a zoning atlas that would map out the state’s local regulatory landscape.
And critics — including builders, Gov. Phil Scott’s administration and the Vermont League of Cities and Towns — have argued that municipal reform should be paired with ambitious rollbacks to Act 250, the state’s major land-use and environmental law. Environmental watchdogs, including the Vermont Natural Resources Council, meanwhile, have been adamantly opposed to major changes to Act 250, arguing that lawmakers should holistically examine the law next year when studies, already commissioned, are in hand.
Under current law, Act 250 review is triggered when someone builds 10 units within five years and five miles, what’s known as the “10-5-5” rule, and debate has largely centered on how much to relax that threshold. While the League remains opposed to the bill, other key constituencies, including the Scott administration and the Vermont Natural Resources Council, have grudgingly accepted a bargain on that jurisdictional threshold.
Compromise language included in the latest version of S.100 increases the threshold to 25 units in state-designated downtowns, neighborhood development areas, growth centers and village centers in towns with zoning. It also would allow the conversion of an existing structure into up to four units to only count as one unit toward that threshold. These provisions all sunset in 2026.
“This bill doesn’t have everything we’d like,” Scott’s housing commissioner, Josh Hanford, said Monday, adding that it was nevertheless “a good step forward in supporting the housing we need.”
For now, all appropriations have been stripped from the bill, which, as initially written, would have directed over $90 million in one-time money to a variety of housing programs. Lawmakers are expected to again direct a large sum to affordable housing construction this legislative session, but exactly how much remains to be determined as House and Senate negotiators hammer out a final budget deal, which is expected Tuesday.
The bill now heads back to the Senate, where that chamber may concur with the House’s latest amendments and send the bill on to the governor’s desk or propose further changes.
