Rural Vermont urges farmland mapping and cautions on transfer‑tax change tied to development zones (H.134)

Caroline Gordon of Rural Vermont told the committee she supports H.134’s proposed removal of the transfer tax for land withdrawn from current use when the land is within concentric development zones, but she urged lawmakers to pair that change with concrete mapping and planning measures to protect agricultural land long term.

Gordon said removing the transfer tax can be fair—particularly where communities plan for expanded housing—but warned that without a statewide, regional planning requirement to map agricultural resources the change could accelerate loss of farmland. She proposed that regional planning commissions be required to produce an "agricultural land use" map layer enumerating current agricultural land, prime agricultural soils, land in conservation easements, and categories of conversion risk (for example, land at immediate risk of development, land at risk due to farm retirements, and land at risk for other reasons). Gordon said such maps would also identify underutilized land and parcels that might be brought back into production.

Those maps, Gordon argued, would give planners and policymakers a baseline for future policies that aim to protect farmland while meeting housing and infrastructure goals. She said regional planning commissions have planners and technical capacity to assemble these layers and that a statutory mandate would push the work forward; she also said she had drafted language and would submit written testimony.

Committee members thanked Gordon and asked her to file the testimony for further consideration. No committee action was taken on H.134 during the session.