By Rep. Larry Satcowitz
Act 250, Vermont’s visionary development statute, is over 50 years old. It is often credited as one of the primary reasons that our landscape looks the way it does. The law has been changed here and there over the years but is long overdue for a more substantial update to meet changing times. H.687, An Act Relating to Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection Through Land Use, was passed by the House last week and would make several needed changes. H.687 is a big bill, but the overriding consequence is that it will tighten the oversight of development in places where most of us agree we would rather not see more building, such as in the middle of blocks of intact forest, and loosen oversight in places where we mostly agree that more development is desirable, such as existing downtowns and the built environments that surround them. This revision is urgent now because development pressures have increased remarkably in recent years.
The bill will create three categories, called Tiers, of land area in the state. Tier 1 will consist of developed areas. These are places that include downtowns, village centers, and our more densely populated residential neighborhoods. These are the areas where it will become easier to build. Tier 3 will consist of areas that “may include river corridors, headwaters streams, habitat connectors of Statewide significance,” and other areas that contain critical natural resources that will be identified through a public process. These areas will include places, such as those comprised of very steep slopes, for which there is broad agreement that development should be subject to increased review. H.687 will make it harder to build in these places.
Tier 2 is the rest of the state, consisting of our farms, forests, and residential rural areas. The main change to the status quo in this Tier will concern the building of long roads and would apply when “the length of any single road is greater than 800 feet, and the length all roads and any associated driveways in combination is greater than 2,000 feet.” Crucially, this provision would not mean that such roads could not be built, but that they would be subject to review under Act 250, and it would not apply at all to farm or logging roads.
The forests of Vermont are a great treasure. They provide habitat for a multitude of species, timber for many uses, and beautiful spaces for us to hike, hunt, and appreciate the natural world. They are also disappearing. The US Forest Service reports that Vermont’s forests are being converted to non-forest use at the rate of over 12,000 acres a year. And this number greatly understates the damage inflicted on our forest ecosystems, as it doesn’t address the ongoing fragmentation of our forests due to the building of new roads, among other factors. While H.687 won’t come anywhere close to stopping the destruction of our forests, it will certainly help slow down this process.
The overwhelming majority of projects that submit Act 250 applications are approved quickly, and Act 250 only covers a small percentage of development statewide. That will not change. Wide-spread development will still take place. We often hear criticism about Act 250 from developers but seldom hear about what that law has accomplished for us. We don’t notice the bad development that never happened. Of course we don’t. It’s not there. It’s intangible, but nevertheless Vermonters have benefited greatly from this law.
A common refrain from Vermonters is that we love the fields, farms, and forests that surround our cities, towns, and villages. But this cherished landscape is going away. We are blotting it out bit by bit, and once those bits are gone, we can’t get them back. If we allow current trends to continue, Vermont will be a very different place for our children and grandchildren. H.687 is an important and meaningful step in the right direction.
Rep. Larry Satcowitz (D, Orange-Washington-Addison District) serves on the House Environment and Energy Committee. He lives in Randolph.
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Categories: Commentary, Environment, Legislation, State Government, Transportation
Vermont has historically never been a suburban or urban state with just a couple of exceptions. The entire reasons behind its successful tourist and second home ownership rates – which benefit the state manyfold, have been its scenic vistas and charming rural townscapes – locales that remained as though frozen in another era.
This leftist push to rezone such small towns & villages in order to provide for “affordable” housing is a massive mistake and one that can never be reversed. Despite Vermont looking as though it is frozen in time, Real Estate property values of course have not remained as they were in the 1960’s, nor should they have. Time marches on for all peoples and states and national & international economic forces guide the Realty market as they do everywhere. If your adult children may not be able to purchase their own home fresh out of college or trade school as you once did, so be it – they save/marry & buy a fixer-upper and accumulate “wealth” (as it is phrased) over their lifetime.
Simply because so many demand instant gratification in terms of home ownership, doesn’t mean we should want yet MORE government interference in the form of subsidized housing aka: “affordable”, “workforce” & more low-income entitlements.
You cannot condemn Communism and socialism on one hand and then demand the state provide for “special” housing accommodations for you or for out-of-staters or for “migrants” or for illegal aliens on the taxpayer’s dime.
The vast majority of this desperate need for more housing is a load of bologna – it is and will be being used for all of the special interest groups mentioned above and not you anyway. If you truly believe that your Vermont is the only state in the nation where young people need to work hard and save hard for a home – you are, frankly deluded.
There is another way of regulating commercial/residential growth in Vermont that nobody speaks of. Until Biden threw the borders open, imigration to the U.S. was controled….. Of course there are those who would contend that our state government is attempting this very kind of imigration control by making Vermont so expensive no one in their right mind would want to move here.
rep. larry satcowitz/// until this clown buys my land , i am going to own it and control it/// this clown took to many covid shots and boosters// move to another state clown///
“A common refrain from Vermonters is that we love the fields, farms and forests-but this cherished landscape is going away”. So… Let’s just cover those fields, farms and ridge tops with wind turbines and solar panels so we can “feel” like we’re saving the planet!..Every time I drive up I-89 more hay fields are covered up with aluminum and glass.
they are stealing farm land and limiting food production//// population control/// this windmill and solar are a massive fraud/// united nations have no authority in vermont/// read vermont constitution/// citizenship/// fees for advocating bills/// oaths of office/// no elected attorney general/// read all proposed constitution amendments 2005 copy vermont constitution////
Yes, let’s turn ” Small Town Vermont ” into a cesspool, yes a cesspool, that’s what the progressive’s mindset festers over……………………….free and easy or cheap and plenty !!
Wake up people
In act 250 and H687 we’ve seen a plethora reasons for stepping up and managing our neighbor’s land. The pitch has been successful. Folks see benefit. However despite our law-abiding aquescience this benefit has an insidious cost to the fabric of our community. Being ruled has it’s costs among Americans. No matter what the rationale for managing other people’s property may be, is it not experienced as confiscatory intrusion by those neighbors targeted. Is all this legislative “pursuit of our happiness” on our behalf stirring up our spirit of independence? What is our tolerance for this kind of management?
Satcowitz, another liberal/ progressive New Yorker who has graced Vermonters with his presence. Act 250, possibly the worst legislation that has ever come to being in Vermont, should be abolished and not made into a further tool to discriminate against both the business and land owners of Vermont ! Satcowitz promotes how this will help hunting yet sponsors legislation to stop the very lifelong traditions of trapping and coyote hunting in our state. Satcowitz iis the last person to suggest anything about hunting when he and his friends seek to strip our Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board of rule making authority and fill the board with non hunting, trapping, and fishing members. Satcowitz saddles up with the noted antihunting group “Protect our wildlife” and the “Vermont Coyote Coexistence Coalition”. This all in mind please understand the New Yorker is not on the side of the sportsman and Sportswomen in our state and looks to further government and progressive control of our properties.
And yet here in the NEK wealthy landowners are buying up everything around them to “keep vt green” and protect themselves from the “riffraff” locals who might buy land and live next to them. They, and larger “companies”, also buy up houses/ land so they can make a mint on renting and keeping prospective homeowners in servitude. Wealthy lefty control. Totally hypocritical, as they continue to complain about the housing crisis, inequality, etc etc. while they support ridiculous taxes and regulations and the “green agenda” that will just destroy the dwindling middle class. Vermont is becoming California. How about a little help for VERMONTERS that are struggling. No handouts, just stop taxing the heck out of us and making living here unaffordable!
Act 250 was not in Vermont’s interest. We banned billboards-GOOD. We nearly banned cell towers-BAD. We did not ban solar farms-VERY VERY BAD. We destroyed education by adding too many rules-BAD. High taxes-VERY BAD. The ambiances that drew me here from NJ over 50 years ago, have reversed themselves, and is pressuring me to seek those ambiances in other states. I sense the lowest common denominator for this reversal of my paradise to the invasion of democrats.