This commentary is by Gabe Lajeunesse, a small-scale developer who has sat on the Montpelier Planning Commission and the Vermont Community Development Board. He lives in Montpelier.
The recent VTDigger commentary by Todd Heyman asked whether Act 181 has created a galvanizing moment for rural Vermont. The answer is yes — but the deeper truth is that this moment was avoidable. The Tier 3 rules were an ideological overreach, advanced by outside interests and pushed forward without a clear understanding of how rural communities actually live, work and steward their land.
Vermont is in the middle of a housing crisis. We have the most expensive health insurance premiums in the United States. Our classrooms are shrinking, our workforce is aging, and families are being priced out of the communities they grew up in. These are the structural challenges that should command our full attention. Yet none of them have moved Vermonters like the rollout of Act 181.
Why? Because Vermonters know when the process has drifted away from them.
The Tier 3 rules were drafted before the maps existed. Rural landowners were left to guess whether their property would be devalued. The road rule returned without clarity. And the reforms that would actually unlock housing in our growth areas were held hostage to new restrictions in rural Vermont. This is not how good governance works.
Partisanship is a luxury Vermonters cannot afford. But the last month has shown how quickly ideological rigidity can fracture trust. The rural-urban divide is real, but it is not inevitable. It is the product of decisions — decisions about whose voices are centered, whose expertise is elevated, and whose lived realities are treated as secondary.
We have allowed ideology to outrun common sense. We have given more weight to advocacy groups than to the people who actually live with the consequences of our decisions. And Vermonters have noticed.
Looking at previous election results, it seems as many as a dozen House seats and several Senate seats could become competitive this fall. Act 181 may well be the tipping point. But the political consequences are not the most important part of this moment. The real question is whether we will learn from it.
Democrats should take this opportunity for introspection. Not to retreat from environmental stewardship or housing reform — both are essential — but to reconnect those goals to the lived realities of rural communities. Vermont cannot solve its housing crisis without unlocking development in our growth areas. And we cannot build durable environmental policy without the trust of the people who care for most of our land.
The path forward is not complicated. It begins with humility. It continues with listening. And it ends with a commitment to lead from shared unity and common ground.
Vermonters deserve a Legislature that listens before it legislates. They deserve leaders who understand that the best policy is built with people, not imposed on them. And they deserve a Vermont where working families can breathe again — where housing is attainable, health care is affordable, and rural communities are treated as partners, not afterthoughts.
Act 181 has revealed a fracture. But it has also revealed an opportunity: to rebuild trust, to correct course, and to choose common sense over ideology. If we do that, this moment will not be remembered as a crisis. It will be remembered as a turning point.
