House backs omnibus housing bill, creates CHIPS tax-increment tool after floor debate

The Vermont House on May 23 voted to propose to the Senate amendments to S.127, an omnibus housing bill that creates a Community Housing Infrastructure Program (CHIPS) to fund infrastructure for new primary-residence housing. The motion to propose the House'recommended amendments passed on a roll call, 100-36.

The bill is presented by the House General and Housing Committee as a strike-all replacement for the Senate bill and includes a range of housing measures and financing tools. "We have a housing emergency in this state. There's not enough housing, and what's available is beyond the reach of most Vermonters," the member from Calais (Representative Mahali) told the House as he introduced the committee report and the CHIPS provisions.

Why it matters: CHIPS is intended to make it easier for municipalities and developers to finance the infrastructure (water, wastewater, roads, sidewalks and similar improvements) needed to create housing that serves Vermonters as primary residences. The bill couples new financing tools with programmatic investments and studies aimed at manufactured housing, mobile home parks, modular housing, and brownfields remediation.

Key provisions and mechanics

- Program purpose and definitions: CHIPS is defined as a targeted tax-increment financing tool to encourage the development of new primary residences for households of low, moderate and middle income, with a later amendment replacing the term "middle income" with "mixed income" to emphasize a range of household types. The House'passed language requires a housing infrastructure agreement between a municipality and a project sponsor and an application process to the Vermont Economic Progress Council (VEPC).

- Floor-area and housing-share thresholds: The House committee language includes…