Committee reviews Act 181 tier system, timelines for municipal exemptions from Act 250

Legislative counsel told the Brabant House Committee on Commerce & Economic Development on April 23 that Act 181 retools the state's land-use review by replacing many project-type jurisdictional triggers under Act 250 with a location-based tier system and by creating a process for municipal areas to seek exemptions.

"Last year, the General Assembly passed Act 181," Ellen Chaykowski, attorney with the Office of Legislative Counsel, told the committee. "It was called An Act relating to Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection through Land Use. But it really was a huge overhaul of our land use planning system." Chaykowski said the law created a three-tier framework (Tier 1A, Tier 1B, Tier 2 and Tier 3) that shifts some permitting responsibility from the state to municipalities for areas designated for dense development while increasing state oversight in ecologically sensitive places.

The change alters how the state decides whether a project needs an Act 250 permit. Under the decades-old Act 250 rules, jurisdiction often depended on project type and size (for example, commercial projects on more than 10 acres or 1 acre, depending on municipal zoning). Act 181 instead looks at site attributes…