‘Caucus of the whole’ scheduled for noon hour today to try to sort it all out
By Guy Page
The Vermont Senate is sparring over two committee chairs’ vision of the future of housing and Act 250 reform.
A more ‘housing-friendly’ reform of Act 250 emerging from a committee chaired by Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D-Chittenden) now faces amendments from Sen. Chris Bray (D-Addison), chair of the more ‘slow-growth’ Natural Resources and Energy Committee.
But before deciding on which vision (or combination of visions) to support, senators must first understand the increasingly complex housing/Act 250 legislative proposals before them.
To that end, the Senate will hold a ‘caucus of the whole’ today at 12:15-30 PM to help senators understand recent amendments proposed by Bray to H.687, the House’s stab at housing and Act 250 reform. The bill became more ‘housing friendly’ after elements of Ram’s S.311, the Be Home Act, were added by the Senate.
Now that bill – already a hybrid – has become more cumbersome with Bray’s amendments, with the scheduled May 10 adjournment of the 2024 session looming.
As passed by the House, the 132-page H.687 – ‘an act relating to community resilience and biodiversity protection through land use’ – would exempt from Act 250 review only housing developments in locations meeting strict guidelines for wastewater, biodiversity impact, and population density, and then only after several years of preparing the necessary regulatory guidelines. It has been criticized as unresponsive to Vermont’s immediate need for more housing by Gov. Phil Scott.
A tri-partisan coalition of lawmakers preferred a House bill that would fast-track housing starts. But the essentials of that House bill were replicated in S.311, the ‘Be Home’ Act passed by the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs, chaired by Ram-Hinsdale.
Confused? So are many senators – which is why the ‘caucus of the whole’ will be held shortly, and can be seen on the Senate YouTube page via Zoom.
H.687 and S.311 are both reactions to Vermont’s unprecedented housing shortage. While both ‘sides’ admit the need to build more housing, the more slow-growth lawmakers blame private sector builders for only wanting to build homes for the wealthy. Ram, and others, say the state must loosen Act 250’s tight grip on new housing construction.
Categories: Legislation
good cop bad cop dog and pony show//// rich verses poor//// these crooks all need to thrown out of office////
Performative pretzel dance to make redlining take on a new coat of lipstick.
According to real estate analysis numbers in Vermont, housing inventory rose over 4% from 2023. (Florida, over 50%) There is no housing shortage. There is a shortage of ethics and morals under the Golden Thunder Dome. The economy is in shambles and no amount of deception and lawfare warfare will stop what is coming – the fork in the road has been met and they are in a desperate panic to hide and paper over what they have done.
Correct, and your numbers back up what I’ve been saying for years – there is NO housing shortage in Vermont or across the USA.
However, how one misrepresents the language obviously impacts the definition or meaning. Therefore, Vermont does have a housing “shortage” for the populace the Montpelier Communists are moving in:
1.) Homeless
2.) Convicts with lengthy criminal records
3.) “Refugees”
4.) Illegal Aliens
THOSE are your new neighbors who will be living amidst you via housing subsidies paid for by YOU, whilst your not-so-clever old neighbors continue to fight the imaginary “demons” who are the out-of-state, law-abiding BMW drivers with families who like to ski and otherwise recreate here & who pay MORE toward the tax base
yet consume less – than do full time residents.
It’s NOT the family from CT who purchased a second home who is the problem – it is the democrat/progressive lawmakers here & the above-mentioned new populations they are moving in.
Stop blaming law-abiding, God-fearing fellow Americans for what plagues the state and start WORKING to get the COMMUNISTS out from Montpelier!!!
Hey Vermonters With no voice from taxpayers!
Boycott paying Taxes period!!
Wake up Americans wake up Vermonters!
Get out and VOTE Red, Red, Red, Red, Red vote Red period folks!
Send liberal leftist Dem Swamp Rats 🐀 🐀 packing period ! Remove them All from their so-called Seats! Get-R-Done Patriots Get-R-Done 🇺🇸