Updated at 6:39 p.m.
MONTPELIER — Gov. Phil Scott signed an executive order Wednesday aimed at speeding up new housing production in Vermont by rolling back regulations that he said have been slowing down projects and making them more expensive for developers.
The order is notable because it comes when the Vermont Legislature is out of session until January but focuses on one of the most contentious issues Scott and state legislators have grappled with in recent years.
Alex Farrell, the state’s commissioner of housing and community development, said the measures put into effect by the order do not require legislative approval.
“This executive order is an attempt to pull the levers that we have control over,” Farrell said. He added that its provisions take effect immediately.
But the order leaves lawmakers and organizations concerned that Scott overstepped his authority.
Scott announced and signed the order at a press conference Wednesday, flanked by housing developers and administration officials. He told reporters that Vermont’s need for new housing was too great to wait for the legislative session to start, and then for legislators to debate and pass additional bills, which could take several months.
Scott said the effort made by lawmakers in past sessions “hasn’t led to enough changes in the right direction.”
He and Farrell said the state needs to build at least 40,000 new homes by 2030 to meet future demand.
“We need relief right now — so think of this as just catching up on the backlog,” Scott said.
The order allows developers to comply with residential and commercial building energy standards put in place in 2020, which had been superseded by newer standards from 2024. The flexibility in allowing the use of either set of standards, the order states, “is intended to be used to make housing more affordable for the buyer.”
Back when lawmakers were considering those new standards in 2023, Jason Webster, co-president and owner of Huntington Homes, said he opposed the changes because the state was not training and educating builders on how to comply with the code.
On Wednesday, Webster joined Scott in support of the executive order, but for a different reason. Webster told the gathered press that not everybody building a house could afford the requirements of the 2024 standards, which he called “one of the most stringent building energy codes in the U.S.”
Webster claimed that the 2024 code added about $12,000 to the price of building an average home.
It’s entirely possible the 2024 energy standards increased upfront costs, said Rep. Scott Campbell, D-St. Johnsbury, but they save people much more money in the long-term. Campbell was previously director of 3E Thermal, an organization that helps owners of affordable housing make their buildings more energy efficient. He now serves on the House Committee on Energy and Digital Infrastructure.
Scott’s directive also tasks regulators under his purview with fast-tracking all housing-related permitting processes. It directs state government agencies that handle housing-related permits to prioritize residential, mobile-home and shelter applications for review.
Regulators should process multiple permits at a time, rather than sequentially, under the order. The order says that permit applications for multi-family housing should “receive priority processing” above non-housing applications. It names a goal to halve the timeline of review periods for residential and shelter projects.
Scott’s order also asks the Vermont judiciary to “prioritize and expedite” court proceedings for appeals of housing permits, among other measures.
While the order states that it isn’t “intended to contravene the intent of the Legislature,” Campbell said that claim was “laughable.” Scott “is assuming authority over policy that really the Legislature has,” Campbell said.
Lauren Hirl, executive director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council, wrote in a press release Wednesday she was similarly concerned with “the breadth” of the order. “We strongly believe in the rule of law and separation of powers, and we are looking into the details of this (executive order) to see if there is any action we need to take,” she wrote.
Vermont House Democrats also issued a press release Wednesday in response to the order.
“While the Governor did not communicate with us prior to today’s executive order, we are encouraged to see the Governor join us in recognizing the need for urgent action,” said the statement, provided by Rep. Mary-Katherine Stone, D-Burlington.
The party will be carefully reviewing the order to make sure it supports the values of Vermonters while protecting the environment, the statement said.
Miro Weinberger, former Burlington mayor and the current executive chair of Let’s Build Homes, a group that lobbies for more housing construction, wrote in a press release Wednesday that the order “rightly identifies outdated state rules and processes as significant barriers to building new homes.” His organization applauds the order, he wrote.
