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Panel weighs trade-offs: prescriptive local codes can speed approvals but may complicate off-site housing
Summary
Committee members and a VLCT witness debated whether highly prescriptive form-based codes help housing supply by reducing appeals or hinder off-site/manufactured housing by imposing town-by-town design requirements; the witness suggested mitigation tools and funding supports.
During a Jan. 15 committee session, members pressed Samantha Sheehan of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns on how prescriptive local form-based regulations could affect off-site/manufactured housing and uniformity for builders.
A committee participant raised a concern that if each municipality prescribes fine-grained details (for example, shutter and siding specifications), manufacturers of off-site homes would face redesign requirements per town, adding cost and delay. The participant warned that "if this prescriptive with off-site housing, it'll kill it."
Sheehan acknowledged the risk and described options municipalities currently use or could adopt: limiting prescriptive standards to specific zones (form-based codes typically apply to downtown/growth districts, not municipality-wide), offering a catalog-based permitted path for builders, allowing certain finish work to be completed locally off the factory line, or preserving a DRB appeal path where a project does not fit the catalog.
Sheehan also recommended state-level supports to reduce local barriers: streamlined adoption processes for state model codes or preemptions (while noting VLCT generally opposes preemptions), strengthened municipal planning grants through DHCD, revival of MTAP-like funding, and expanded municipal revenue authorities to de-risk municipal-led housing projects.
What the hearing left unresolved: Committee members and Sheehan discussed mitigations but did not reach a consensus or a specific legislative solution for balancing uniformity for manufacturers with local design control. The testimony directed legislators to consider technical resources, model code templates and financial tools if the state wants to accelerate municipal adoption of more prescriptive local codes.
What's next: The committee will continue hearing education-style testimony and may consider legislative language to streamline local implementation and support municipalities with technical or financial capacity.
