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Legislators review "housing infrastructure" tool to help towns fund water, sewer and roads for new homes
Summary
A coalition presentation outlined a bill to let eligible housing projects capture project‑level tax increment or allow developers to carry debt to finance municipal infrastructure, focusing funds on housing and adding brownfield and flood‑resilience costs as eligible expenses.
Ruth, executive chair of the coalition Let's Build Homes, presented a "housing infrastructure initiative" (HIT) to the House Committee on Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs, saying the tool is designed to cover municipal infrastructure—water, sewer, roads and related costs—that often makes housing projects financially unviable.
"We have a scarcity of homes in Vermont that is driving not just housing affordability, but rippling through our health care challenges and workforce issues," Ruth said, describing a newly formed coalition that she said had grown to about 700 members and organizations.
Why it matters: Ruth and other speakers told the committee that public‑service extensions and utility upgrades can add millions to a project’s cost and that an infrastructure financing tool focused on housing could unlock developments that otherwise ‘‘won’t pencil out.’’ They framed the proposal as a narrowly tailored alternative to broader tax‑increment financing (TIF) that would apply only to predominantly housing projects in geographically eligible areas mapped under Act 250…
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