MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – Could a major environmental rollback in California have ripple effects in Vermont?
Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a law rolling back key components of the state’s landmark environmental regulations with the aim of trying to ease the housing crunch. Those regulations were enacted back in 1970, the same year Vermont passed its signature land use law, Act 250, which faces pressures of its own.
Born from the emerging environmental movement of the 1960s to rein in ski town development brought in by the new interstate, Act 250 was signed into law by Governor Deane Davis in 1970.
“Up in Calais, Vermont, I ran into a farmer up there that said to me once, he said, ‘You know what governor, we have air up here in Calais that ain’t never been breathed,’” Gov. Davis said at the time.
Act 250 played a critical role in shaping the way the Green Mountain State looks and feels today. But the signature law has also been at the center of a decades-old debate — does it go too far in regulating new development and stifling economic growth, including new housing to attract more people to the state.
“We need to change directions,” said former Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger, who is spearheading Let’s Build Homes. It’s a statewide initiative to spur housing growth and reverse the demographic tide. Weinberger says Act 250’s restraints are, in part, to blame for the fiscal struggles of our times, including homelessness and soaring costs of health care and education. “We have made it very hard to deliver housing, health care, science, and innovation breakthroughs that we need to thrive.”
Spurred on by Governor Phil Scott, state lawmakers last year tinkered with changes to Act 250 to make it easier to build housing in urban centers.
But some people disagree that Act 250 is the root of our problems. “Act 250 has always been a piñata almost since it was created. The backlash started early,” said Bruce Post, who served under Governor Richard Snelling and Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords. He says he worries about the gradual chipping away of the land use law. “I think we’ve abandoned things to the developers and real estate caucus based on information that hasn’t been fully understood or examined.”
The governor has said — and many lawmakers agree — that Act 250 reforms need to go further. “They should be focused on the outcomes we want, specifically the outcome of more housing,” Weinberger said.
In the wake of last November’s political realignment at the Statehouse, a new Land Use Review Board this summer will work on other changes, including re-drawing where and how Act 250 is applied.
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