Statelaw Act 181 reshapes regional planning; RPC outlines Act 250 exemptions and municipal housing targets to South Burlington planning commission

The Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission told the South Burlington Planning Commission on Tuesday that the new state law known as Act 181 standardizes regional future land-use categories and links those categories to state designation programs and to changes in Act 250 review.

CCRPC Senior Planner Kate McCarthy said the law "builds on a long standing planning role" to preserve compact settlement patterns and to promote housing options. She said regional future land-use maps will use a single set of 11 categories defined in statute and that those categories will translate into state designations such as downtowns and neighborhood development areas.

The change moves part of the designation step from a state board process to the regional planning level: once a regional future land-use map is approved by the state Land Use Review Board, centers identified on the RPC map become state-designated centers, McCarthy said. The…