Lawmakers debate separate universal-design study, push to codify accessible housing standards (H.479)

Representative Elizabeth Burrows (chief author of section 4 of H.479) told the Senate committee on May 6 that Vermont lacks a statutorily defined set of universal-design features for housing and asked lawmakers to create a study committee to recommend statewide standards.

"For the record, my name is Elizabeth Burrows, and I represent Whizzer 1," Burrows said, describing how more than 80% of Vermont’s unhoused population has a physical disability and why the state needs a clear list of accessibility features before adopting statewide building codes. "We just need to decide as a state what we what exactly we want," she said.

Why it matters: Burrows and supporters argued that codifying universal-design elements in statute would make accessible features permanent and would allow the state to align building codes, funding programs and developer incentives. Supporters framed the work as a precursor to statewide building-code decisions that will affect housing affordability and long-term accessibility.

What proponents proposed: Under the proposal, a universal-design study committee would inventory design options (Burrows said there are roughly 70 possibilities), include stakeholders with lived experience, and deliver recommendations that could be incorporated into the statewide building-code process. Burrows told the committee the goal was not to set building codes directly but to inform codes and avoid later conflicts among accessibility, energy and historic-preservation requirements.

Witness testimony and agency views: Polly Major, policy director for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, told the committee that VHCB and the Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) already apply a universal-design policy for many subsidized projects and that the study would extend consideration of universal design to the broader market where roughly 85% of rentals lie outside subsidized housing. "We then go a step further when we use federal funds and projects to be compliant with the ADA," Major said, noting federal funding requires fully accessible units at higher standards in some projects.

Susan Ernaff, senior planner and policy analyst at the Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council, said the council supports keeping the study separate from the committee focused on intellectual and developmental disability housing needs. "We tried to keep our group small," she said, and stressed that the planning group must deliver an actionable plan by Nov. 15 to inform next year’s drafting deadlines.

Points of contention and alternatives discussed: Some senators, while sympathetic to accessibility goals, warned against creating more study committees at a time they said the legislature must prioritize building more housing and reducing costs. One senator suggested incentivizing accessible development by offering density bonuses and reduced permitting instead of or alongside a study. Another concern raised was that adding design requirements without density to offset per-unit costs could increase prices for new units; a senator said some net-zero accessible apartments in their region list for upward of $800,000.

Consensus and committee direction: Committee members generally supported proceeding with the work but debated whether the universal-design group should be combined with a developmentally disabled planning group; witnesses and department representatives recommended keeping the two efforts separate because the technical questions (architectural standards versus service integration) differ. Several senators signaled support for adding staff and stakeholder participation to the study and for coordinating its output with the broader building-code committee chaired by Scott Campbell.

Next steps: The committee agreed to hold further testimony, possibly including Scott Campbell, and to keep the universal-design study language in the draft H.479 for now so the work can proceed ahead of statewide code adoption.