Rural testifier urges zoning, wastewater and finance changes to revive small‑town housing
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Summary
An extended witness identified in the transcript as Speaker 2 told the committee that tiered zoning, conservative wastewater rules, permitting delays, lack of predevelopment financing and workforce shortages are blocking rural housing projects and offered concrete fixes including a rural housing pathway, revolving loan funds, tax abatements and use of underutilized municipal land.
A witness identified in the hearing transcript only as Speaker 2 told the General & Housing committee that rural Vermont needs a tailored housing pathway to reach the "missing middle" and keep small‑town economies viable.
Speaker 2 said many rural towns are functionally blocked from development because tier 1 zoning and permitting advantages primarily benefit urban centers. "Tier 1 designation is functionally inaccessible to most rural towns and villages," the testifier said, and argued that the principal constraint in many village centers is wastewater capacity, not land use rules.
To address the gap Speaker 2 proposed a package of actions: raise thresholds and create a rural housing pathway that shortens and simplifies appeals, funnel state dollars to village‑scale wastewater and alternative technologies, expand access to predevelopment capital (revolving loan funds and loan guarantees), explore tax abatement or longer tax cap windows for projects to pencil out, and encourage municipalities to donate or convey blighted properties or underused school land to developers.
Speaker 2 gave local examples: the testifier said many towns have dozens or hundreds of uninhabitable houses (citing Lunenburg with about 980 properties on the tax roll and a large share uninhabitable) and pointed to stalled projects that failed to pencil out despite developer interest. The witness also highlighted workforce challenges tied to CTE programs and said some rural career and technical programs have shuttered or are not producing graduates for building trades.
Committee members asked clarifying questions on whether Speaker 2’s proposals targeted housing exclusively; the witness confirmed the focus was housing and said they would follow up by sending written materials and language. The testimony emphasized targeted state tools for predevelopment financing, streamlined permitting and wastewater solutions as the most immediate levers to unlock rural projects.
Sources: Testimony of witness identified in transcript as Speaker 2; committee discussion.