Land Use Review Board asks Senate panel to fund staff, digital intake and keep ARPA coordinators as it implements Act 181

The Land Use Review Board told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Feb. 25 that it needs additional and continued funding to implement Act 181 and manage a new, tiered system for land-use jurisdiction.

The board, which officials said was seated Jan. 27 and replaces the Natural Resources Board, asked the committee to fund a permanent executive director position that is included in the governor's recommended budget and to continue two ARPA-funded district coordinator positions that help issue jurisdictional opinions. "We have 31 permanent positions and three ARPA positions," said Rachel Mondo, business director for the Land Use Review Board. "The district coordinators are the ones that issue those opinions and help people through those processes."

Nut graf: The request is presented as necessary to stand up the board's responsibilities under Act 181 — notably creating tier 1/2/3 jurisdictional maps, reviewing regional future land-use maps and administering a new application process for communities seeking exemptions. Without additional staffing and digital tools, board members and staff told senators the permitting and jurisdictional-opinion work could slow at a time of heightened demand.

Board priorities and funding requests - Continue two ARPA-funded district coordinator positions that are due to expire Dec. 31, 2025. The board told senators the two positions proved "instrumental" and asked for funding to retain them; committee members were told $125,000 would cover continuing the two positions through the fiscal year. The board said it is seeking funding to retain the positions for a multi-year period and described an ask covering about 3.5 years at roughly $3.93 million to cover continued coordinator staffing and related needs.

- Make the executive director permanent. The executive director position was included in the governor's recommended budget and is established in statute under Act 181, officials said.

- Add a digital intake system. The board requested $100,000 to develop a digital intake system to accept applications from towns seeking tier 1a exemptions and to publish future land-use maps and regional plans for public review.

- Expand a permitted-records scanning project. The board said it was awarded a one-time $500,000 ARPA appropriation to scan Act 250 permit records in two districts (Chittenden County and three counties in the northeast region). Rachel Mondo said Xerox Corporation has been contracted to scan material and that the records will be held by the Vermont State Archives, with scanning and storage handled through the Agency of Digital Services and the State Archives' records center in Middlesex. The board said it requested an additional $1 million general-fund appropriation to extend scanning statewide.

Implementation context and operational details Sarah Adam, vice chair of the Land Use Review Board, described three major changes under Act 181: a professional full-time board, the tiered jurisdiction structure, and a revised governance structure including new attorney support. "We have five new members with about four weeks on the job," Adam said. She and staff emphasized that rulemaking and many operational processes will be prioritized over the next months and that statutory deadlines will require rapid work on tier definitions and regional-plan review.

Committee members pressed staff on workload and timelines. Senators and staff identified a sharp increase in jurisdictional-opinion requests since the interim exemptions were enacted, and witnesses said district coordinators reduced backlog and helped applicants navigate the new system. "Without these positions, that process would take longer," a board staff member said.

The board also said it currently has 31 permanent positions in its base staffing and three ARPA-funded limited-service positions (including the two district coordinators and the executive director position funded by ARPA in prior years). Officials said the district coordinators are currently filled but will require new funding once ARPA support ends.

Ending: Board staff told senators they plan to prioritize rulemaking needed to implement Act 181 while maintaining permit and jurisdictional services. They asked the committee to consider multi-year funding to preserve staffing continuity during the transition to the new tiered regime.