Land Use Review Board says open‑meeting rules are straining its ability to complete Act 181 tasks

The Land Use Review Board told the Vermont Senate Government Operations Committee on Feb. 11 that recent reforms to Act 250 under Act 181 have given the new board wide, full‑time duties while open‑meeting requirements are limiting the ways members can collaborate between public sessions.

Peter Gill, executive director for the Land Use Review Board (formerly part of the Natural Resources Board), said Act 250 is “a permitting system throughout the state that looks at development and subdivisions and puts them through a rigorous 32 different criteria,” and that Act 181 both reorganized the board and added duties. He told senators the board now issues about 350 to 400 land use permits a year, roughly 5% of those go through the major process, and “about 0.2% of our decisions are denied — that’s roughly one a year, plus or minus.” He also said district coordinators issued about 270 jurisdictional opinions this year and that 1–3% of permitting decisions are appealed annually.

The board’s new structure makes its five members full‑time, paid professionals rather than volunteers, Gill said, and assigns new responsibilities including reviewing and approving regional plans, determining tiered jurisdiction under Act 181, and conducting substantial rulemaking. “It has been challenging and not conducive to encouraging the five members with this level of expertise to be collaborative and to be efficient in their work,” Gill said, describing the practical strain of holding all collaborative work as open meetings.

Janet Hurley, chair of the Land Use Review Board, told the committee the board intends to be public facing and to follow open‑meeting law. “We want to hold open meetings, and we want to conduct the decision‑making business of the board in open meeting,” she said. Hurley added that because board members are geographically dispersed, the board has been using hybrid meetings and traveling around the state to meet the public.

Several senators responded that the board must operate under Vermont’s open‑meeting law but said the committee can consider narrowly tailored changes. Senator Rebecca White said she respected the board’s concerns but added, “I don’t think we wanna be removed from open meeting law.” Other senators noted earlier work creating a narrow exemption for a separate full‑time commission and suggested the committee consider a similarly limited carve‑out, or restoring a site‑visit exemption inadvertently omitted as bills moved between chambers.

Committee members and board representatives agreed to pursue further legal clarification. Senators said legislative staff already are drafting language to restore a site‑visit exemption and to clarify the definition of “advisory” bodies in the open‑meeting statutes; several members proposed bringing legal counsel together — including the board’s lawyers and open‑meeting counsel — to test narrow options for deliberative or agenda‑setting exemptions that would not remove the board wholly from the law.

No formal action or votes were taken by the Senate Government Operations Committee during this session. Committee members directed staff to monitor related bills under consideration by other committees, including draft language in the ongoing housing bill package and S.59, and to schedule follow‑up briefings with counsel.

The board and senators emphasized two constraints: that the Land Use Review Board must continue to hold its decision points in public, and that any legislative change should be narrowly drawn so Vermonters retain visibility into substantive decisions about land use and regional plans.

For now, the board will continue to conduct public meetings while seeking legal guidance and legislative clarification on narrow exemptions that members said would allow them to collaborate more efficiently between formally warned sessions.