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Regional planners ask lawmakers to tweak Act 181 to speed amendments, clarify designation rules
Summary
Regional planning commissioners told the Natural Resources & Energy committee Feb. 19 that modest statutory edits to Act 181 could reduce municipal frustration, speed housing-ready mapping and let towns more easily access designation incentives; they asked for a faster amendment process, clearer definitions and short extensions for expiring plans.
Trevor Baker of the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission and Catherine Ventura of the Northwest Regional Planning Commission told the Natural Resources & Energy committee on Thursday that targeted changes to Act 181 would make regional planning and town participation easier without altering the law’s policy goals.
Baker said the heart of the work is aligning regional growth-area maps and state housing targets, and noted the Vermont Housing Finance Agency and the Department of Housing Community Development set regional goals for 2030 and 2050. "In the 2050 goal, there's a lower target and an upper target, basically a range from 79,000 to 172,000," he said, adding that Vermont currently has roughly 300,000 housing units for context. He told the committee the RPCs break those targets down by housing type to plan mixes of single-family homes, small apartments and larger buildings.
The presenters described four concrete changes they recommend.…
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