Committee reviews H.50 language to inventory state lands for potential affordable housing sites

During the same Feb. 13 Corrections & Institutions meeting the committee examined draft language in House Bill 50 that would require the commissioner of Buildings and General Services (BGS) to report — at the start of each biennium — on state real property that might be suitable for conversion into affordable housing.

Rob White, project delivery bureau director at the Agency of Transportation, told the committee that AOT maintains extensive parcel data and that a statewide parcel mapping project completed about a decade ago (now managed by the Vermont Center for Geographic Information) provides a searchable inventory of properties the state owns. White said that with GIS queries the agency can identify candidate parcels by size, slope and other attributes, but that further evaluation beyond the database would be required to determine viability for development.

Committee discussion focused on scope and responsibility. The bill’s current wording references the duties of the BGS commissioner in Title 29, but committee members and staff raised questions about whether the language should explicitly bring AOT, the Agency of Natural Resources, or other agencies into the process because each agency controls different types of state land and has different constraints. The chair suggested additional stakeholder consultation and a potential multi‑agency approach or an expanded reporting author.

White explained constraints that commonly apply to transportation‑owned parcels: land acquired with federal highway funds generally must return proceeds to the federal Title 23 fund and is subject to federal surplus/sale procedures; many AOT parcels are right‑of‑way strips that are not suited to housing; other parcels are rest areas or maintenance yards that BGS manages. He told the committee that the parcel database could be queried to generate an initial list but that additional site analyses would require further staff time and engineering studies.

Committee members proposed a few practical approaches: narrow the initial report to BGS‑managed properties, employ an interagency working group to perform a deeper review, or prepare a prioritized list of the most promising parcels for solicitation to developers. The chair asked staff to reschedule testimony from the BGS commissioner and to brief the chair of the Transportation Committee to ensure coordination.

Rob White summarized the state’s mapping asset and suggested the committee could produce a useful inventory without an excessive staff burden by starting with GIS filters to identify candidate parcels, then tailoring follow‑up analysis to the most promising results.

Ending: The committee asked staff to return with revised language and to coordinate with BGS, AOT and other relevant agencies before the bill is advanced. No vote on the bill occurred at the meeting.