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Senator Clarkson and legislative counsel outline S.328 housing package: town targets, down‑payment expansion and zoning changes
Summary
Sen. Allison Clarkson and legislative counsel walked the committee through S.328, a Senate compendium housing bill that would embed regional housing targets into town plans, extend down‑payment assistance and adjust zoning language (changing 'by right' to 'permitted use') to encourage duplexes, quadplexes and manufactured housing; counsel noted several sections were amended or stripped in Senate appropriations and cross-committee work remains.
Senator Allison Clarkson (chair, Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs) presented an early walk‑through of S.328 to the House Committee on General and Housing on March 31, describing it as a “compendium bill” designed to reduce barriers to housing development and strengthen planning and financing tools.
Clarkson opened by framing Vermont's housing gap — a legislative target of 7,500 new units per year versus recent best output near 3,000 units — and said S.328 bundles administration and legislative priorities to embed regional housing targets into municipal town plans, require town plans to analyze regulatory and physical constraints, and document actions a town could take to meet targets (section 1). She said the bill also seeks to expand financing tools and to extend Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) down‑payment assistance through 2031 while increasing annual tax‑credit authority from $250,000 to $350,000 in the Senate draft.
The presentation covered several policy areas in the bill:
- Financing and assistance: Section 2 (as described by Clarkson) would extend the VHFA…
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