Senate panel asks planners to redraft S.328 housing-target language after warnings it would burden small towns

The Senate Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs committee heard testimony March 10 on section one of S.328, with municipal planners and the Vermont League of Cities and Towns urging the committee to narrow and reframe housing-target requirements so they do not create regulatory obligations for volunteer-run towns.

Samantha Sheen, municipal policy and advocacy specialist for the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, told the committee she "generally support[s] in concept" the idea of municipal housing targets and working with regional planners, but warned the draft statutory language is in places "not quite appropriate for a municipal planning document" because municipal plans are advisory, not regulatory. Sheen cautioned that many Vermont communities are small and volunteer-run, and that detailed inventories of building location, age, condition and occupancy are not readily available and would be resource-intensive.

"We hear often from our municipal leaders ... that housing is their top concern," Sheen said, adding that municipalities "feel constrained still" by some state-level regulatory tools. Sheen and other witnesses suggested striking or softening provisions in subsection 1A and 1B that read like requirements to compile detailed inventories, and instead using language that encourages towns to begin developing methods to collect useful data.

Testimony included specific cost estimates for more intensive work: witnesses said a focused housing feasibility study would typically cost about $30,000 to $50,000, while municipal planning grants commonly range from roughly $15,000 to $30,000. Committee members noted that some municipalities already incorporate consultants as part of routine plan updates but warned smaller towns and volunteer planning commissions could be unable to shoulder additional statutory obligations without grant support.

Katherine Demetri of the Northwest Regional Planning Commission said RPCs have been working with towns on housing targets and recommended against creating a separate new statutory section for the targets. "The first being that just structurally it's set up as something separate from the town's plans," Demetri said, recommending that the committee instead strengthen the existing housing element in statute by explicitly requiring an analysis of regulatory and physical constraints and a statement of how the town is making progress toward meeting targets.

Committee members generally agreed with witnesses that the goal of promoting more housing should be preserved but that the statutory approach should be achievable. The chair asked VLCT, RPCs and staff (Cam) to collaborate on redrafting section one and asked stakeholders to email comments to staff for a quick revision. The committee said it will return after the floor session to resume discussion on the remaining transit-quarters options.

Next steps: staff will circulate a revised draft of section one for review; stakeholders were asked to provide written comments to staff promptly so the committee can consider revised language that emphasizes municipal discretion and realistic data expectations.