Truly Affordable Housing
I have a front row seat to the housing problem as an alternate Act 250 Commissioner in Addison County. My involvement in adjudicating many cases here has made it clear that Act 250 promotes the opposite of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
1) The bureaucratic burden of Act 250 makes it so that only the most wealthy and affluent can afford to build in Vermont and when they do it costs far more than construction in other states making it nearly impossible to construct “affordable housing”. The tax burden alone of the large number of state employees required to manage, analyze, and approve all the 32 criteria and subcriteria on every application is enormous. A realtor familiar with development in S. Burlington noted “the Act 250 process is allowing the developers up there to build some really nice $200K units for $500K.” Recent development right here in Vergennes is proving similar.
2) The current legislature has defined “affordable housing” to mean heavily taxpayer subsidized or free housing to homeless or very low income people. Not that we shouldn’t provide some of that, but we need to return to the real meaning of “affordable housing” to be construction of houses that normal working Vermonters can afford to buy via the normal process of getting a mortgage they can afford to pay.
3) A critical step to achieving this is significantly scaling back on the Act 250 red tape for all Vermonters, not just the select few in “designated areas”. I participated in a recent Ferrisburgh Town Planning meeting where there were some truly great ideas put forth yet the cloud of Act 250 restrictions loomed as a concern voiced by those in attendance with development experience.
4) Our current incumbent Representatives are actively working AGAINST Vermonters and AGAINST Gov. Scott by passing bills that actually EXPAND Act 250 regulations making it harder to develop affordable housing. Both of our current incumbent Representatives voted to override Gov. Scott’s veto of H.687 “An act relating to community resilience and biodiversity protection through land use”. In his objection letter the Governor stated “I want to assure you, there is a path forward and I would respectfully ask the Legislature to pass a replacement bill that will result in more housing while protecting rural communities from additional economic harm. Despite almost universal consensus, I don’t believe we’ve done nearly enough to address Vermont’s housing affordability crisis. H.687 is heavily focused on conservation and actually expands Act 250 regulation. And it does so at a pace that will slow down current housing efforts. Vermonters need us to focus on building and restoring the homes communities desperately need to revitalize working class neighborhoods, reverse our negative demographic trends, and support economic investment in the future.” Read Gov. Scott’s full letter here:
https://governor.vermont.gov/sites/scott/files/documents/H.687%20-%20Veto%20Letter.pdf
Vote for a CHANGE. Vote to SUPPORT GOV. SCOTT.
Vote for ROB NORTH for STATE REPRESENTATIVE.
