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House committee asks counsel to draft universal-design language for off-site housing pilot
Summary
The House Committee on General and Housing heard testimony from AARP Vermont on universal design and asked counsel to draft language to add 'elements of universal design, including adaptability and visitability,' to the pilot in section 3 28; members said VHFA guidance and modular-home building codes can be used to provide specificity while avoiding changes to HUD standards for manufactured homes.
On Wednesday, April 29, the House Committee on General and Housing heard testimony from Kelly Sonapour, associate director of outreach for AARP Vermont, who urged lawmakers to incorporate universal-design features into the pilot created by section 3 28 and offered model language and checklists for the committee to use.
Sonapour told the panel, "We define universal design, as housing that is designed for people of all ages and abilities that does not have to be adapted or, specially designed afterwards," and said AARP favors requiring or incentivizing universal-design elements in new housing that uses public resources. She listed low-cost, early-design measures — "step free entrances, wider doorways and halls, accessible lever handles, and accessible bathrooms" — and warned that retrofitting later shifts costs to Medicaid, family caregivers and municipalities.
The testimony cited VHFA guidance as an existing source of standards: Sonapour described VHFA's universal-design checklist and said it includes "at least no step entry to the building and unit, wider doorways and halls to allow ease of movement, lever style door handles and faucets, slip resistant flooring and adequate lighting ... walk in or low threshold showers and wall blocking for future grab bars." She also offered to provide the committee AARP's model legislation and survey results showing broad support among older adults for these features.
Committee members pressed practical questions and raised implementation concerns. Representative Elizabeth (committee member) said she favored stronger wording than mere "consideration," requesting language to show "how to include" universal-design elements rather than leaving them optional. A committee member who identified herself as Saudia emphasized equity and the cost benefits of building the features up front rather than retrofitting later.
Representative Leonora Dodge raised a separate concern about manufactured housing: she said the current statute appears to exempt prefab and manufactured homes from state accessibility-code requirements and cautioned that the committee should avoid inadvertently trying to change HUD standards for HUD-regulated manufactured units. Members noted a distinction between HUD-regulated manufactured homes and off-site modular homes built to local building code, arguing that placing universal-design language in the subsection on creating and adapting off-site building codes would make it applicable to modular units without conflicting with HUD-regulated standards.
With the committee split between doing more study next session and making a limited change now, Chair Debbie Golden proposed asking counsel to draft an amendment that would add an item to the pilot list (an "h") reading roughly as the "incorporation of elements of universal design, including adaptability and visitability," or to insert equivalent language into the off-site building codes subsection. The chair said she would email counsel and reconvene the committee immediately after the chamber floor to consider the draft and potentially vote. The committee adjourned to return after the floor.
Next steps: the committee asked counsel to prepare draft language for review after the floor; no formal vote was taken during the session.
